Expanding the Nest
by lilmm
Summary: AU. There are a lot of unexpected surprises you have to deal with when raising a family. Like your stepson's boyfriend needing a place to stay. Or a pregnancy test coming up positive. Carole has a lot to deal with this year.
1. 1st Trimester

I've read a number of Glee stories that mention Carole becoming pregnant/having a baby at some point after the wedding - many of them quite good - but none of them go into much detail about the pregnancy itself. So I thought I'd write one.

There will be four chapters and maybe an epilogue or a sequel - I'll see what I feel fits better. I expect to post a chapter a week.

This is dedicated to my sister-in-law, who is now expecting her first baby. She and my brother are refusing to find out what it is until it's born, but we do know that it will be a Christmas elf. ^_~

**I do not own Glee. Any pregnancy information included in this story is true to the best of my knowledge and research abilities, but as I am not a doctor and have never been pregnant, feel free to take it with a grain of salt and do your own research****.**

* * *

><p>"Shit."<p>

Carole picked up the fourth test between her fingers like it would bite her.

"Shit."

This wasn't happening. She was too old for this to be happening.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!"

Carole Hummel was pregnant at 45. Shit.

* * *

><p>Burt pulled off his shirt and lifted himself up into bed. Why Carole had decided she liked the mattress that put their bed almost four feet off the ground, he'd never know, but seventeen years of living with Kurt had taught him not to argue too much when it came to decorating his own house.<p>

"You coming to bed anytime soon?" he called, flipping on the TV for some background noise. With as weird as Carole had been acting the past week, Burt had long since decided not push his luck in the bedroom.

Carole came into the room slowly, flipping off the switch in the bathroom and hesitating a few feet away from the bed, shifting nervously like Finn did when he had bad news he felt obligated to tell him.

"Honey, I-" Carole closed her eyes and took a breath to steady herself.

Burt sat up and moved to throw off the covers. "Carole, what's wrong?"

Carole opened and closed her mouth a few times, but when no sound came out she pursed her lips and held up a plastic stick instead. Burt blinked.

"That isn't what I think it is," he managed to choke out.

Carole dropped her hand to her side and turned around to lean up against her side of the bed.

"I don't know what happened," she said softly. "We're always so careful."

Burt swallowed and ran his hand over his head a couple of times. He couldn't decide if he should feel excited or terrified. Hell, he couldn't decide if it felt _real_. He opted to crawl over to his wife and rub her shoulders instead. He could decide what he felt later.

"Condoms aren't 100% effective, Hun. And there were a couple of times when the boys were in New York that we forgot about that foam stuff you like to use."

"That's because you got us drunk off our asses," Carole said drily, the corners of her mouth turning up slightly.

"Hey, Kurt wasn't here to scold me; I was gonna take advantage while I could. And I don't remember you complaining at the time."

"Mm, no. No complaints when you do that thing with your thumbs…" Carole trailed off and turned to look at him with the beginnings of a naughty smile before remembering the stick in her hand. She grimaced at it then tossed it onto the nightstand.

"What are we going to do, Burt? We're too old to have a baby now."

"Who are you calling too old? I'm spry enough to father ten more kids as long as you're here to do it with me," Burt said, moving his hands to squeeze her waist.

"Burt…"

"We'll be fine. People have kids in their forties all the time now. It's practically normal."

"Two years ago I had resigned myself to being a grandmother."

"Well, maybe having a baby in the house will resolve Finn not to have any more sex until he's thirty."

"Burt," Carole chided, aiming an elbow somewhere near his stomach while trying to hide a grin.

"Hey, I'm not too crazy about the idea of either of our boys having sex yet. I'll take whatever deterrent I can get."

Carole leaned her head back against Burt's shoulder and let him snake his arms more fully around her waist.

"Are you really okay with this?"

"Well, I can't say I was expecting it, but," Burt paused and buried his nose in her hair for a moment before leaning around to look her in the face. "Yeah, I think I'm okay with it. I don't know that I really believe it yet, but it'll be kind of cool to have another little Hummel running around."

Carole closed her eyes and finally allowed her tears to fall. Choking back a sob, she looked back at her husband and cupped a hand against his cheek.

"I don't know how I got so lucky to have a guy like you in my life."

"You didn't think I'd want to get rid of it, did you?"

"I don't know what I thought," Carole sighed tiredly and nudged him back so they could both crawl into bed. "I just… the boys are already looking at colleges. I caught Kurt and Blaine looking at apartments online the other day. They're practically men now. I can barely handle thinking about them being gone soon, and now this…" she shook her head. "I just don't know how to process that I'll be doing this again."

"You don't want to get rid of it, do you?" Burt asked carefully.

"No, of course not. I just, I don't know. Maybe I just need time."

"You'll have a good nine months, babe."

"That was horrible," Carole said, swatting at his arm. "And try closer to seven or eight if it happened when we think it did."

"Whatever. We'll work it out."

"Mm."

"The boys will love it. Kurt'll go nuts decorating the nursery, and I bet Finn will come up with all kinds of kooky baby names."

"We probably shouldn't tell them until we find out everything's okay," Carole said, sitting up again. "At my age any number of things could go wrong, and-"

"Honey, we'll make an appointment to start all those tests tomorrow morning. There's no use worrying about things we can't control. Though, you're probably right about waiting to tell the boys."

Carole took a few deep breaths then lay back down to cuddle into Burt's arms.

"I love you."

Burt smiled and kissed her head.

"I love you too."

* * *

><p>"Thank you for letting me crash here," Blaine said quietly, wishing he could better express everything he was feeling.<p>

"You were too upset to stay at home tonight," Kurt said lightly, folding back the covers on his bed before moving to switch off the light. "And it's not like we're going to do anything."

"I'll be gone before your dad ever has a chance to notice I was here, I promise."

"Blaine, it's fine," Kurt insisted, crawling into bed and patting the empty space between them. "Now are you actually going to get in, or should I send you downstairs to the sofa?"

Blaine huffed out a quiet laugh and crawled in next to his boyfriend, pulling up the covers and throwing an arm over Kurt in one movement.

"Smooth," Kurt said only somewhat drily. His voice had gone a little bit breathy the way it did when he was nervous about how fast they were going.

"I just want to sleep, I promise," Blaine said, then burrowed his head into the pillow to prove his point.

Kurt hummed happily and turned on his side so Blaine was spooning him.

"Is this okay?" he asked quietly, playing with Blaine's fingers. Blaine pulled him closer and kissed the nape of his neck with a smile.

"It's perfect."

They lay there for a while just breathing together, and Blaine allowed himself to fantasize about falling asleep that way every night. There was something soothing about having Kurt's warm body curled up next to him, his scent everywhere around him. It was easy to block out everything else when he was surrounded by just _Kurt_.

"Blaine?"

"Mm?"

"I don't mind, you know. If you want to make this a regular thing. I kind of like the idea of falling asleep in your arms."

Blaine smiled and intertwined their fingers. Yes, he could definitely do this every night.

* * *

><p>Carole woke before the sun rose with an intense need to vomit. Throwing off the covers, she sprinted for the bathroom and only just made it to the toilet before her stomach rebelled completely.<p>

Not for the first time this month, she was glad her side of the bed was closest to the bathroom. At least now she knew why she'd been feeling queasy so much recently.

When she felt confident she wouldn't throw up again for a while, Carole pulled herself up and thoroughly brushed her teeth. One of the things she had hated most about being pregnant with Finn was the near-constant morning sickness throughout most of the pregnancy. She'd felt she would never be able to get the taste of bile out of her mouth. Hopefully this time around it would ease up _before_ the beginning of the third trimester.

With a rueful glance in the mirror, Carole pushed her hair out of her face and headed out of the room to start a pot of coffee. She couldn't stand the stuff normally, but when she'd been pregnant with Finn just the smell of it would ease her stomach and relax her mind. Her doctor had told her she was crazy and to lay off the caffeine.

Flipping on the light in the kitchen, Carole barely managed to hold back a scream. Standing by the sink with an empty glass was her step-son's boyfriend, sleep-tousled curls wild about his head and pillow marks still faintly noticeable on his face. He quickly put down the glass and raised his hands defensively, giving her a nervous smile.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. We honestly thought everyone was asleep."

Carole inhaled deeply and put a hand to her chest. At some point her heart rate had to return to normal. "What on earth are you doing here at 5:30 in the morning?"

"Um."

Carole peered closer at the boy and could see the gears quickly turning in his head for a parent-friendly excuse. Burt wasn't going to like this.

"It's kind of awkward, but Kurt and I both have the day off today and I thought it might be fun to take him to King's Island –you know, show him where I work – and since it's a two hour drive we'd have to leave about now to get there before the crowds get huge."

Carole hid her smile. Even Finn was usually a better liar than this.

"You want to go to work on your day off to show Kurt around? While wearing your sweatpants?"

Blaine flushed and looked at the floor. She could definitely see what Kurt saw in him. He was adorable.

"Not believable?"

"Not in the slightest. Want to try again?"

Blaine smiled sheepishly and let out a self-deprecating sigh. "Sorry. The real reason is kind of embarrassing. I-I know I shouldn't even be here."

"Blaine-"

"Carole?" Burt's voice echoed softly down the hall. Blaine paled faster than she'd ever thought possible and eased himself further away from the door, using the island as a definite shield against fatherly attacks. Burt came around the corner and stopped abruptly when he saw the teen standing there.

"Honey, I found Blaine sleeping on the couch. He was just about to tell me why when you walked in," Carole said calmly and went about making the coffee at last.

Blaine threw her a grateful glance before obviously gearing himself to talk to a distinctly unhappy-looking Burt. She'd have to tease him about his angry father face later.

"I know this looks kind of bad, but I needed a place to crash last night and Kurt said it would be okay if I slept here."

Burt crossed his arms, practically growling, "And why would you need a place to 'crash'?"

Carole leveled a 'be nice' look over Blaine's shoulder and pressed the button to start the coffee maker.

"My dad and I got into a fight," Blaine said quietly. Burt's face softened perceptibly and Carole turned her full attention back to the boy. The normally confident teen was more pulled in on himself than she'd ever seen him.

"It's not a big deal," he continued quickly. "We just don't get on well and I didn't really want to be within ten miles of him last night, so I came here. I'm sorry we didn't tell you. It was kinda late when I got here and Kurt didn't want to wake anybody up."

"I'll be talking to Kurt about that later," Burt said decisively then hesitated. "Your dad… he didn't hit you or anything, did he?"

"What? No!" Blaine looked genuinely appalled at the idea and Carole sighed in relief. "My dad may not like me very much, but he'd never hit me. It's just – like I said, we don't get on."

"Because you're gay," Burt stated, searching the boy's face.

"Yeah, mostly," Blaine looked like he wanted to be doing anything but talking to Burt about his dad. "I mean, he's not too crazy about my music either, but I don't think that would be such an issue if I weren't gay."

"What about your mom?" Carole asked. "Doesn't she take your side in any of this?"

Now Blaine really looked like he wanted out of this conversation. Carole wondered just how bad his home life was. He seemed so put-together and confident all the time that she'd hardly put any thought into the matter. Hell, half the time she forgot he was still just a teenager, with all the doubts and insecurities that came along with that.

"I haven't seen my mom since she got married," Blaine said awkwardly. "I mean, I get a postcard every week or so from wherever she's travelling with her new husband and we talk on the phone, but – well, it's been a while since I've actually seen her, you know?"

"How long?" Burt asked angrily. Carole hoped he could contain himself in front of Blaine. The kid looked ready to bolt as it was.

"Um, a couple of years. It's a really long honeymoon," Blaine gave an unconvincing smile and Carole's heart broke. She'd only met him a little more than six months ago and already she was fighting back daydreams of him marrying into the family. How could his own parents treat him with such disregard?

Burt seemed to be doing a breathing trick Kurt had taught him. None of them said anything for a while, and the burbling of the coffee maker was the only sound in the room.

Soft footsteps began to echo down the stairs and Carole caught Burt's eye. She knew what she would do in this situation, but Kurt was his son and they had agreed that the bigger discipline issues would be handled by the boys' biological parent.

"Blaine?" Kurt's voice called out softly enough not to be heard in the rest of the house. The look on his face when he rounded the corner and saw them all standing there made it obvious he hadn't thought they'd be up. Carole had to hide another smile.

"Blaine! What are you doing here?" he said quickly. The boys were such bad liars it almost wasn't fair to punish them for it.

"Kurt," Blaine said with a soft smile. "It's okay, they know."

Kurt paled further and gulped, shooting a quick glance at Burt's unamused face before returning his attention to Blaine.

"I caught him sleeping on the couch," Carole said quickly before either of the boys could get themselves into more trouble. "He nearly scared me to death."

"I am sorry about that," Blaine said sincerely. Carole waved away his apology and winked at Kurt's grateful expression. She liked being able to be an ally instead of just a parent.

"Kurt," Burt said shortly. "We talked about you having Blaine over without me knowing. I don't appreciate being lied to."

"Nothing happened! Like Carole said, Blaine slept down here; I was up in my room. Nothing could have happened."

"You still broke a promise," Burt huffed.

"I know, I'm sorry. But Blaine was upset and I couldn't stand the thought of him sleeping in his car again or something," Burt and Carole's eyes both flicked to Blaine who was refusing to look at anyone. "So I told him to come over here. And you guys had already been asleep a couple of hours by that point, so I figured if he left before you woke up you'd never even have to know."

"And that's supposed to make me feel better about all this? That you two are sneaking around behind my back up to who knows what?"

"Sir," Blaine spoke up. "If it makes you feel any better, neither of us has done any more than kiss. I-I know Kurt's not ready for anything more than that, and quite frankly I don't really think I am either. And even if I was, I would _never_ push him into anything he's not ready for."

Carole watched Burt take a couple of deep breaths and rub his hand over his head a couple of times. She shot him a supportive smile and turned to the fridge as unobtrusively as possible to start breakfast.

"All right," Burt said finally. "Clearly we need to go over the rules again. Blaine, if things at home are really as bad as you say, I don't feel any more comfortable with you sleeping in your car than Kurt does, and I hope to hell it's not something you've actually done. If you need to get away from your house for the night you can stay here. On. The. Couch," each of them nodded furiously, Kurt with an oddly triumphant look in his eye. "And no more of this sneaking around business. I don't care what time of night it is, Kurt, you tell me if he's coming over."

Burt sighed again as the boys continued to nod furiously, talking over each other with assurances and promises Carole was sure they'd never be able to actually keep. She started cutting up sweet potatoes for a hash.

"Blaine, sweetie, how do you like your eggs?" she asked lightly, trying not to laugh at the shell-shocked look on his face when she glanced more fully in his direction. "I'm not sending you home with an empty stomach," she continued when he still didn't say anything.

"Um, scrambled," he said meekly.

"You bring any clothes with you?" Burt asked, causing Blaine's head to whip around in the other direction. He flushed and looked down at his sweatpants.

"I kinda wasn't thinking that far ahead."

"You can borrow some of mine," Kurt said conclusively and quickly stepped around the island to take his boyfriend's arm. "I have some jeans that should fit and I think the new shirt I just bought would look amazing with your skin tone."

Kurt quickly steered Blaine out of the kitchen, mouthing, "Thank you," at Burt as he turned the corner. Once they were gone, Burt blew out his cheeks and collapsed theatrically into one of the chairs at the table.

"That was certainly awkward," Carole said, liberally coating the frying pan with more olive oil than Kurt would probably approve of.

"Please tell me you actually found him on the couch."

"Do you really want to know?" she asked, looking at him over her shoulder.

Burt paused, then got up to pour himself some coffee.

"I'm going to pretend you said yes and try not to think of it ever again."

Carole smiled and patted his shoulder as he moved past her to make some toast.

"I still find it hard to believe that boy has so many issues with his parents. He acts so well-adjusted," she said.

"He hinted that he didn't get along great with his dad before. I just never imagined it was quite this bad. On both sides."

"He's obviously used to handling things by himself. The way he was uncomfortable even talking about his parents just broke my heart."

"I half wonder how much Kurt even knows about Blaine sometimes."

"Be fair. I think he has a habit of downplaying things a lot. I remember you telling me how fidgety he was acting around prom, and Kurt told me shortly after they met that he was bullied at his old school. It only makes sense that the two were connected. If he didn't like talking about that, he certainly wouldn't want to talk about how bad his home life might be."

"Mm."

"Burt?"

"Do you think he was telling the truth when he said his dad didn't hit him?"

"I-" Carole took a breath and focused on turning the hash for a moment. Blaine was not her sister and his father was not her ex-brother-in-law. "He didn't look like he was lying about that. He's not that good an actor."

She felt Burt's large hands rub apologetically along her shoulders and leaned back into him gratefully.

"I didn't mean to bring all that up," Burt said quietly. "I just don't understand why else he'd feel compelled to be away from home so much. I could tell he's slept in his car at least once when Kurt brought it up, and the only time he hasn't been over here this summer is when he was working. He's practically been living here. Honestly, I don't know how I missed it."

"Honey, if he gets along with his father as bad as he says he does, I'm not surprised he finds every excuse to be somewhere other than home. He's clearly not comfortable there."

"I guess I just can't understand why a guy who would go to the trouble of rebuilding a car with his son would be at war with him two years later. I thought Blaine was just being overdramatic when he talked about him turning him straight."

"Honey, I moved out of my parent's house the day after I graduated high school. I think I spent more of my senior year at sleepovers than I did my own house because I couldn't bear the thought of being around my mom any more than I had to. We got along great when I was a kid, but after I hit puberty it was like a switch was flipped and we couldn't stand each other anymore. Maybe it's as simple as that with Blaine and his dad."

"And his being gay was the switch?"

"Maybe."

Burt hummed skeptically and Carole shooed him back to the dining table so she could finish making their breakfast in peace. The room was silent for a few minutes, and at one point Burt left to retrieve the morning paper from the driveway.

Carole's mind drifted away from fights with her mother and back to those stupid pink plus signs on the four pregnancy tests she took last night. Would this kid grow up politely resentful like Blaine or constantly confused like Finn? Would it try to hide its problems behind a wall of perfection like Kurt? She and Burt would be in their sixties by the time it was a senior in high school. Would they still be healthy enough to be good parents? And how would the boys handle the news?

"He's going to end up living here, isn't he?" Burt asked, breaking her train of thought.

"What?" Carole was barely able to stop herself from pointing out that of course the baby would live with them.

"Blaine," Burt said pensively. "I just know he's going to end up moving in here before they graduate."

"It's not so horrible," thuds from upstairs indicated that Finn had smelled breakfast. "When Quinn was living with us we just adapted our routines a bit. And at least with Blaine we'll have had some warning if he does move in."

"But they're both boys," Burt said as if that explained everything.

"At least neither of them can get pregnant," Carole joked flippantly. Burt's eyes flew to her belly and she sobered immediately.

"You want me to call the doctor?" Judging from the thumps coming down the stairs all three boys were ready for food.

"I'll do it after we eat," Carole smiled tightly.

Burt opened his mouth to say something else, but the boys rounded the corner at that moment and Finn practically galloped to the table.

"Sweet! You made hash browns," he said, taking almost half for himself. "Blaine, dude, these things are awesome, you've gotta try them."

"Maybe he could if you'd left any for the rest of us," Kurt said drily, carefully perching himself in a chair and taking a piece of toast. Blaine took the chair beside him and smiled awkwardly at Burt and Carole, Kurt's shirt giving his skin a healthy glow and bringing out the amber in his eyes.

Carole let out a quiet sigh as all four of her boys began feeding themselves enthusiastically. They'd figure everything out. Eventually.

* * *

><p>Burt hated doctors. He'd hated doctors since Elizabeth got sick, and he'd really hated them after she died. His heart attack hadn't improved his opinion of them either. The regular check-ins on his progress drove him crazy, but it was important to Kurt that he be healthy enough to stick around for as long as possible, and now with the baby – well, doctors were about to become even more a part of his life.<p>

Dr. Johnson was a decent enough sort of guy, he supposed. He tended to get right down to business and never used shaming techniques as part of his practice. Burt respected that. Unfortunately, it seemed to make Carole nervous.

"What if there's something wrong with it?" she asked, bouncing a leg up and down. "I haven't exactly been eating well lately, especially not at work. What if it has some sort of spinal issue because I haven't been getting enough folic acid? Or what if it has Down Syndrome because I'm so old?"

"Then we'll deal with it when the time comes," Burt said patiently, resting a hand on her knee and squeezing it to get her attention. "And you're not old."

The door opened and Dr. Johnson strode through purposefully.

"All right, so it says here you believe you're pregnant."

"I took four tests; two of them were different brands," Carole's hands started twisting on themselves.

"All right then. What symptoms have you been noticing?" he asked, taking notes in his folder.

"After I took the tests I noticed my breasts starting to get tender."

Burt shifted uncomfortably. He remembered that this sort information was necessary, but it still didn't make him any more comfortable hearing his wife talk about her breasts with another man.

"I've also thrown up a few times," she continued. "Maybe three or four times a week for the past month or so? At first I thought it might be food poisoning, so I wasn't paying that close attention. And I've been more tired recently. I had to start taking naps before dinner last week. That's what really tipped me off that I might be pregnant. I slept through a lot of my first pregnancy."

"So, this wasn't an intended pregnancy?"

"No. We, um, we've been using spermicides regularly. That won't hurt the baby will it?"

"It shouldn't have any ill effect on the fetus that you've used them in the past and using them post-conception hasn't been proved to make any noticeable difference in the fetus' development. I wouldn't worry too much about it, but I'll make a note of it just in case. We'll be watching you more closely anyway since this is a geriatric pregnancy."

Burt blinked. Geriatric pregnancy?

"Just for the record, were you two only using the spermicides or was there another form of birth control at play as well?"

"We always use condoms," Burt said gruffly. "Even if we forget the foam stuff, we always use condoms."

"Well, sounds like you've been doing everything right in that arena. When was the first day of your last period, Carole?"

Burt really didn't understand why the doctor needed to ask that. His nurse had asked it almost as soon as they'd walked in the exam room. Didn't they take notes for a reason? Were they trying to catch them in a lie?

"I think it was June 16th," Carole said tightly. "It was lighter than usual, though, so it might have just been spotting. I had that in my first pregnancy."

"Do you remember the date of the period before that?"

"Early April maybe? I've never been terribly regular and lately I've been even less so. For a while there I thought I might be starting menopause."

Burt looked at her then. Was he a terrible husband for not knowing that? He usually just let her handle her women's stuff on her own, but menopause was supposed to be a big deal for women. Not that it would be an issue any time soon, of course.

"All right, we'll have to run a couple tests to confirm things. I'm going to have the nurse come in and draw some blood and I'd like a urine sample as well. After that, we'll do a pap smear just to make sure everything's okay down there. I'll probably have you step outside for that, Burt. Any questions?"

Carole shook her head and Burt muttered something negative sounding. With a sharp nod, the doctor left and Carole blew out a breath she'd obviously been holding.

"I'm finding a different doctor."

"What?"

"He reminds me too much of the army doctor I dealt with when I had Finn. I don't think he liked babies too much and found it beneath him to treat me. I don't want to go through that again."

Burt tried to think of something he could say to that which wouldn't make her snap at him.

"'Geriatric pregnancy'," she muttered, shaking her head. Nope, nothing he could say to that.

The nurse from earlier came back in and drew a couple vials of blood then escorted Burt back to the waiting room. He made sure to squeeze Carole's hand before he left.

There were a couple of young kids in the waiting room when he got there. The boy seemed determined to bash a Lego into something soft with the rear bumper of his toy truck. Burt smiled. Kurt had never really been one for that sort of thing. When his business partner, Jerry, had gotten him a toy car for his fourth birthday, Burt had come home to find that his son had inexpertly painted it a rainbow of colors claiming it was a butterfly.

Burt wondered what his new kid would be like. Part of him quite guiltily wanted another boy who he could teach sports rules to without arguments that he'd get his clothes dirty. But another part, maybe even a larger part, kind of wanted a little girl. Kurt would go crazy over a little sister, and although he'd never admit it, Burt kind of liked the idea of an all pink nursery. He didn't even know why.

Carole walked through the door a few minutes later waving a slip of paper triumphantly in her hand.

"I barely even had to say anything," she murmured as they walked out the door. "He practically forced the referral slip on me as soon as I mentioned getting an OB."

"So who's your new doctor?" Burt asked, loving the way her eyes lit up.

"Dr. Wu."

* * *

><p>Finn thought Blaine was a pretty okay dude, but that didn't make him any more comfortable being in the same room with him and Kurt when he pretty obviously wanted to make out.<p>

It was something about his eyes. They'd go all soft and a little intense. Finn was pretty sure he got that look when he was thinking about kissing Rachel, so he knew what it meant when he saw it on someone else.

It wasn't even the whole gay thing that made him uncomfortable. He was pretty sure he was over that. Why else would he smile when he caught them holding hands under the dinner table or leaning into each other when they watched one of Kurt's girly TV shows? He just didn't want to see them making out because he was afraid he might start to think of them doing other stuff, and he really didn't want to think of them doing that. He didn't even want to think of Puck doing that.

It was kind of becoming a problem though, because Blaine had been showing up at the house more and more frequently since summer started, and Finn was beginning to wonder if maybe his luck would run out and he'd accidently walk in on them someday. There were only so many hours he could hide in his room playing video games before his eyes started to hurt.

He wanted to be cool and supportive about it, because everyone knew Kurt deserved to be happy after all the crap he'd been through, but Finn kind of preferred being supportive from a distance. He was fine lying to Burt for them if they were out late on a date, or telling off some idiot for heckling them the two times they had held hands in public; he wasn't fine with watching them suck face.

It kind of made him feel guilty for kissing Rachel so much, actually. It must wig Kurt out to see him doing that with Rachel as much as it wigged Finn out to see Kurt and Blaine do it. Or their parents. Yeuch.

Somewhat petulantly, Finn wondered why they couldn't go over to Blaine's house some days. He was a cool guy; his parents were probably pretty cool too. Unless they were complete bigots they had to like Kurt, cause Kurt was pretty awesome once you got to know him. Though if they were bigots that might explain why Blaine practically lived at Casa de Hudmel these days. Huh.

Finn didn't often wish he was wrong about things, but he hoped he was wrong about Blaine's parents. And he really hoped he was wrong about the reason Kurt and Blaine just went upstairs.

* * *

><p>Blaine had never paid that close attention in his middle school sex ed class, because even though he was still in the closet, he'd known he'd never have to worry about getting a girl pregnant. As a consequence, he absorbed enough information to pass his tests and then promptly forgot all but the basics of female reproduction.<p>

Now, however, Blaine was intensely curious. It was a welcome change from the intensely worried he was earlier that afternoon when Carole greeted him at the door only to bolt for the bathroom a second later. When all that emerged for nearly five minutes was the sound of vomiting, he'd wondered if it would be overstepping to call Burt directly.

After she came out, it only took a good ten minutes of his worrywarting for her to come out with the truth. Carole was pregnant. She'd even been to the doctor to confirm it.

So now Blaine was googling everything he'd never bothered to learn in school. He bookmarked sites on fetal development, dos and don'ts of pregnancy and plain English descriptions of all the various tests that had to be done at the various stages of fetal development. It was fascinating.

The biggest thing worrying him now was Carole's request when they heard the men of the house tromping through the front door after a long day at the garage.

"Please don't tell Kurt and Finn."

"What?"

"I know it's a lot to ask to keep something like this from your partner, but I'm not ready for them to know yet."

"Carole-"

"Any number of things could go wrong and I don't want to worry them until absolutely necessary."

"It's going to be obvious fairly quickly."

"I'll tell them when I'm ready," she whispered, glancing fearfully towards the front door. "Just promise me you'll let me do it on my terms."

"I-"

"Blaine?" Kurt called. He came around the corner looking adorable in his grease-stained mechanic's gear, like something out of a play rather than the working world. "What are you doing here? I thought you had to work till six tonight."

"I got off early. They've been overbooking us for weeks and it was finally my turn to pull the short straw and work a half shift. Not that I'm complaining," he winked.

Kurt blushed and quickly excused himself to shower. When Blaine returned his attention to Carole she was begging him with her eyes and he had no choice but to agree.

Her relieved smile was warm, but he had a bad feeling all the secrecy would blow up in their faces.

* * *

><p>Fifteen minutes into the appointment and Burt was already shifting uncomfortably in his chair. Carole wondered if he'd thought it would be taken up mostly by looking at pictures of the baby. Then again, he always was uncomfortable talking to doctors about things he felt were primarily personal.<p>

Carole didn't remember the army doctor asking so many questions when she was pregnant with Finn, but Dr. Wu seemed to want her and Burt's entire medical histories as well as those of their parents and the boys. She hadn't even changed into that stupid paper gown yet.

"So, Carole, according to the GH test results Dr. Johnson sent over it appears you're somewhere between twelve and thirteen weeks pregnant, which gives us the perfect opportunity to do a nuchal translucency scan along with our scheduled ultrasound to see how the fetus is developing," Dr. Wu said, finally putting down his pen.

"What does that check?"

"Basically it's a specialized part of the ultrasound that gives us an idea of whether or not your baby will be born with chromosomal abnormalities like Down Syndrome or a major congenital heart defect. It can't predict it completely, but it can give us a better idea of what's going on in there so you two can decide whether or not you want to do amniocentesis in another five weeks. It's standard practice for older mothers."

"I thought the term was 'geriatric pregnancy'," Carole said bitterly.

"Yes, well, the first and only time I used that phrase was as a medical student with a forty-eight year old mother of twins. Upon hearing the term she proceeded to bash me about the head with her handbag; I'm still convinced she had an unabridged copy of War and Peace in there somewhere. Thus the term in this office is 'older mother'," Dr. Wu said with a small smile and a lifted eyebrow.

Carole chuckled, "I don't blame her."

"After working with pregnant women for the last twelve years, neither do I."

"So, this nuclear transparency thing," Burt started.

"Nuchal translucency," Dr. Wu corrected.

"Yeah, is that just some fancy doctor name for an ultrasound or what?"

"A regular ultrasound looks at the fetus's overall development. We'll be doing that today as well. A nuchal translucency scan looks specifically at the thickness at the back of the neck. There's always some fluid there at this stage of the pregnancy, but if there's a higher than normal amount, it could be a signal that something's gone wrong."

"Does that happen often?" Carole asked.

"I won't lie. It is more likely there may be some issue because of your age, but lots of women over thirty-five have perfectly healthy babies every day, so I'd rather not dwell on that until we find out for sure that it could be an issue. We'll mail you the results from today regardless of what we find. You should get them in a couple of weeks."

Carole nodded and told herself to breathe. Other than the adjustments they'd have to make in their lives, her biggest concerns focused on whether or not the baby would be healthy.

Dr. Wu smiled at her in understanding.

"So, that's everything I need from you two at this point. If you'll just follow me I'll show you to the exam room and we can get this show on the road."

Carole collected her purse from under the chair and took Burt's hand when he offered it to her.

The examination room was pretty much just as she remembered from having Finn. Though the décor was more contemporary, the room still had the mess of wires and electronics that made up the ultrasound machine and the examination chair with its awful foot holders was in pride of place.

"Carole, I'm going to step out of the room for a few minutes so you can get changed into that lovely gown over there and then we can get on with the ultrasound. Remember, undress completely before you put the gown on. I'll be back shortly."

Dr. Wu left and Carole blew out her cheeks at Burt.

"Everything will be fine," he squeezed her hand. "Stop worrying so much."

Carole shook her head and proceeded to undress. She'd purposefully worn easy-to-get-out-of clothes and in no time was tying the horrible string 'fasteners' at the back and hiking herself up into the chair. At least this time the gown was cloth.

There was a gentle knock at the door and Dr. Wu strode through with a pretty black nurse at his heels.

"All right," he said, seating himself on one of the stools and clicking around on a computer screen. "Since you're already so far along we'll skip the transvaginal ultrasound for now and just use the regular transducer you'll be used to seeing. We'll see if your baby cooperates."

"This'll be a bit cold," the nurse said, squeezing blue gel onto Carole's lower abdomen.

Carole joined Burt in anxiously watching the screen Dr. Wu had angled toward them and then they saw it: a little arm was waving across the screen as though to say, "Hello."

The view shifted and then the rest of it came into view. A giant head, a round body and little stick limbs squirmed around in an interpretive dance.

"Oh my god," Burt breathed.

"You can see its leg there," Dr. Wu said, pointing the cursor along a flailing limb. "Nice strong spine. And there's the outline of its nose."

The mouth opened and the baby flailed a bit more.

"Ah, there it's sticking out its tongue," Dr. Wu pointed the cursor at a small, indistinct blob that appeared and disappeared near its mouth. The baby yawned and kicked out, rolling over to show them the top part of its butt.

"It's already a comedian," Carole said. Dr. Wu and the nurse smiled absently, paying more attention to whatever they were looking for on the screen. Carole felt the wand thing move, trying to get the baby back into a view that would allow Dr. Wu to take the measurements he'd need.

The nurse jiggled Carole's belly a little and the baby rolled over to a position she and Dr. Wu found more useful for their measurements. The screen began to freeze every minute or so and Carole watched as the cursor would draw a line here or expand a circle over that feature and then the picture would move again, the baby's limbs still flailing.

"All right, everything's looking good so far," Dr. Wu said. He glanced up at them with a sparkle in his eyes. "Ready to hear its heartbeat for the first time?"

Carole heard Burt inhale deeply beside her and nodded swiftly. She couldn't take her eyes off of the screen.

Dr. Wu clicked a few more things and then the room was filled with a steady, loud whooshing-clomping sound.

"Listen to that," Burt muttered. Carole glanced away from the patterned bar that had popped up at the bottom of the screen and smiled at him. That was their baby.

* * *

><p><strong>Reviews are awesome and very, very helpful.<strong>


	2. 2nd Trimester

So, for anyone wondering, I've decided not to de-age Blaine in this universe to correspond to the obvious audience ploy of the show. He is 18 and a senior.

I'm not as confident in the flow of this chapter, but it gets done what I want it to. Mostly I'm less confident because a couple of stories I've been reading have revealed Blaine plotlines similar to something that I've already written for the next chapter, and in some respects they've done it better. It's kind of distracting. One of them is oncethrown's Our Last Summer, which I've been increasingly obsessed with ever since I first found it. The other is Mytay's Fall Down From the Sky, which disturbingly even used similar word choice in some places. They're both worth a read if you haven't read them yet.

**I do not own Glee. Any pregnancy information included in this story is true to the best of my knowledge and research abilities, but as I am not a doctor and have never been pregnant, feel free to take it with a grain of salt and do your own research****.**

* * *

><p>Carole officially had porn star boobs. Not only had they grown an entire cup size, but half the time she thought they were firm enough to hardly need a bra at all. Of course, bra or no, they still hurt like hell, especially if she wore a bra with underwires. She was becoming queen of the sports bra uni-boob, and wasn't that attractive?<p>

Unfortunately they definitely looked like pregnancy boobs once the bra came off. Her areolas had darkened to a reddish brown color and the weird bumpy things on them that had freaked her out in her first pregnancy stood out nearly as proud as her nipples. And the stretch marks. Carole didn't remember getting stretch marks on her _boobs_ the last time she was pregnant.

Burt complained she was hiding herself from him, but Carole told him to shut up and distracted him in other ways. Not everything was about her boobs.

* * *

><p>Blaine was a marvelous kisser. He always knew exactly the amount of pressure to exert, exactly the amount of tongue to use. And once he figured out just how much Kurt liked kissing him back he used his talents at every possible private moment – especially when that moment involved distracting Kurt from something unpleasant in Blaine's home life.<p>

Kurt knew Blaine fought with his dad on a regular basis. One of the first things he'd learned about him after moving into the dorms at Dalton was how much Blaine avoided going home if at all possible. At one point he was working three jobs on top his schoolwork and his responsibilities with the Warblers just so he wouldn't have to go home for Spring Break.

He could never get Blaine to go into detail about the things he fought with his dad over, but he knew he was under a lot of pressure to get into an Ivy League school to 'pay for' the tuition at Dalton. He also knew that Blaine absolutely _hated_ his stepmother.

From what little he could piece together, Blaine and his dad constantly fought about his stepmom. She was apparently the reason his parents divorced when he was eleven and she was also apparently the reason Blaine's dad was increasingly uncomfortable with his son's sexuality. Kurt didn't even know what her name was; Blaine always used pronouns when talking about her.

Blaine was not an angry person and he didn't hate easily. It was one of the things Kurt loved about him. He was compassionate, and believed almost everyone had the ability to change and grow into better versions of themselves. It was wonderful and inspiring to hear him talk about people like that, but when it came to his dad and stepmom, Kurt worried about just how badly they betrayed those beliefs when it came to their treatment of Blaine himself.

If Blaine would rather kiss him than talk about his home life, then Kurt wouldn't complain. He knew all about the art of distracting away from awful situations, after all. And just because he was also directly benefitting from those distractions didn't make them mean any less to Blaine. Right?

* * *

><p>Finn was starting to get kind of weirded out. Blaine kept bringing fruit to the house. First it was apricots, which Kurt made into a really awesome tart thing that Finn may or may not have eaten most of, then a couple weeks later it was oranges.<p>

This week it was an avocado. Burt turned it into a really good guacamole, but Finn couldn't help wondering why Blaine kept bringing them food.

At first he thought Blaine was trying to pay them back for being over so much, but he hadn't obviously slept over in almost a month, so that didn't make a whole lot of sense. Plus he always volunteered to do the dishes anytime he ate with them, and that by itself was enough to make Finn's mom want to adopt him. He just couldn't figure it out.

Kurt seemed to think it was some sort of dating gift and told Finn to shut up whenever he mentioned it, but Blaine always gave the fruit to his mom. It made no sense that it was somehow for Kurt when it always went to her. The shorter boy usually just rolled his eyes and walked away muttering something about gentlemen, which made no sense either, but Finn wasn't as bothered by that.

But all the fruit. It was just weird.

* * *

><p>"You need to tell them."<p>

Ever since Kurt and Finn started back to school August 24th, Blaine had taken to spending most of his afternoons at the house preparing dinner and, when she was off work, pestering Carole about the baby. It became a little more difficult once Dalton started up the first of September – Finn had given him all kinds of grief about actually attending Hogwarts – but he found it worth it to sacrifice his daily coffee run to devote to the commute between Westerville and Lima. Somehow just breathing the homey air of the Hummel-Hudson house was as stimulating as the missed caffeine.

"I'll do it after my next exam. I want to make sure everything's okay before I tell the boys."

Blaine stopped chopping celery to stare at her. He was almost certainly about to overstep, but the woman seemed to be in some serious denial.

"Carole, how far along are you?"

"About eighteen weeks," she said after a short pause.

"So, you're nearly halfway through the pregnancy and you have yet to tell your children. Who are almost adults."

"Blaine-"

"Look, Carole, I understand wanting to tell them when you're ready, I do. But at this rate the baby will be coming out of you and you still won't have told them what's going on. It's not fair to them and it's not fair to me either. I have so much I want to talk to Kurt about, but I can't and it's killing me keeping this from him. We never keep secrets from each other."

Carole sighed and leaned against the counter. Blaine didn't want to browbeat her, but he was honestly a little terrified of Kurt's reaction when he found out. It was big news to process and would change Kurt's life even more fundamentally than it already had Blaine's.

"I want to wait until we know what sex it's going to be. That's the first question people ask when they find out and I'd like to be able to answer it for the boys."

"You don't think they'd like to be there to find out when you do?"

"I just don't think I can handle Finn's reaction right now. He'll be so angry I didn't tell him," Carole curled her arms around her stomach.

"And you think keeping it a secret for longer is going to mitigate that?" Blaine asked gently.

Carole closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths. Blaine felt guilty for pestering her, but he knew he was right. He laid a hand on her shoulder and squeezed.

"Waiting will only make things worse, especially if they find out on their own," he murmured.

Carole huffed and smiled tightly. "You're as bad as Burt. I promise I'll tell them after my next check-up and then you can talk to Kurt about it as much as you like. After that everything will be out in the open anyway."

Blaine still wasn't satisfied, but he'd hold her to that.

* * *

><p>Burt didn't know why he was nervous. Finding out the sex wasn't anywhere close to the point of the ultrasound, but he couldn't help thinking about it that way. He'd love the kid regardless, but for some reason he felt like the fate of his next eighteen years was riding on today's results.<p>

So far, Carole and the baby had passed all of their tests with flying colors. As far as the doctor could tell, everything was developing normally so the two of them had decided not to do any of the more invasive tests to check the baby's genes. They'd love it no matter what.

Still, having a gender to think about brought things into a whole new perspective. The fantasies he played through in his head changed depending on whether it was a boy or a girl. Even having Kurt for a son couldn't change that. He daydreamed about Finn helping him teach a boy the right tricks to get a particular spin on a football. He daydreamed about Kurt teaching a little girl how to sew and then strut around the living room like those half-starved models he liked to watch on TV. Once he even daydreamed about Blaine showing a set of boy and girl twins how to play the piano, but there had been so many things weird about that he'd immediately turned up his radio as loud as it could go and tried to think of something else.

"You're practically shaking," Carole said lightly, taking his hand before climbing into the exam chair.

"Just excited."

"I'm a little nervous too," she admitted with a small smile. "Knowing what it's going to be… sometimes I feel like it still hasn't quite sunk in that this is happening. I kind of hope learning what it is will help with that."

Burt squeezed her hand. He knew she was still freaking out about it. Twenty weeks in and he still couldn't convince her that they needed to tell the boys. Even Blaine had apparently been harping on her about it.

Though he wasn't pleased when he learned his son's boyfriend had found out before his boys, he had hoped he'd have an ally in negotiating their new family, especially once Blaine started bringing around recipes and healthy snack stuff he'd read somewhere would give the baby the best advantages once it was ready to face the world.

And the kid seemed to help her cope with it in other ways too. He knew they talked when the boys were still at their after-school stuff and he was still at work. As far as he could tell, Blaine was the only other person Carole would even mention the pregnancy to outside the doctor's office.

There was a gentle knock on the door and Dr. Wu entered, followed by one of his nurses.

"Big day today," he greeted. "You two did still want to find out the sex, right?"

"Absolutely," Burt said decisively. The nurse chuckled a little and squirted some gel stuff onto Carole's belly.

"All right, well, let's get the exciting stuff out of the way first," Dr. Wu said, monitoring the picture on the computer screen.

The baby was almost completely still, but Burt thought he could almost see its little chest moving like it was breathing air.

"Looks like nap time," Dr. Wu said as the nurse jiggled Carole's belly. It was kind of funny how the image on the screen jiggled too.

The baby squirmed a little then rolled over and showed them its butt.

"It's very proud of its butt," Burt joked. "Every time we come in here it wants to show it off."

The view shifted to focus more on the butt area, and something that might have been a leg swooped down and obscured it for a moment before moving away again. Burt couldn't see anything that might be a penis, which must mean…

"It's a girl," Dr. Wu said, taking a screen shot of the cursor pointing toward the vee of its legs. Her legs.

"A girl," Carole sighed.

"Kurt'll be so happy," Burt beamed.

"We're having a girl," Carole said, turning to look at him and squeeze his hand even tighter. He couldn't stop smiling.

The view shifted along the baby's back again and Burt couldn't help marveling at how sometimes he could see ribs and the individual bones in her arms and legs. And her spine looked stronger than ever, arching every once in a while as though trying to find a comfortable spot.

When the view took in her head again, he could see the weird skeletal mask of her face, sometimes blocked by a hand.

"She's sucking her thumb," Carole laughed.

After a while, the view shifted to show a black spot pumping rhythmically in her chest.

"You can actually see it," Burt muttered, almost to himself. He certainly hoped it would prove to be stronger than his.

For the rest of the exam they looked at other blobs that were supposed to be organs in her stomach; at one point they even looked at the lobes of her brain, but Burt kept getting distracted trying to make out what her face might look like.

By the time they walked out of the doctor's office that afternoon, Burt was no longer nervous. He was practically dancing with excitement and getting laughed at by everyone, from Carole to the woman who passed them on her way in.

They were having a little girl. He could actually have the all pink nursery he'd secretly wanted since Elizabeth got pregnant with Kurt.

The thought of his son reminded him of one more thing they had to do today.

"You know this means we can't wait any longer to tell the boys."

Carole sighed a vaguely affirmative-sounding sigh, but when he looked over at her she was smiling.

* * *

><p>"Kurt, Finn, come to the kitchen. Carole and I have something to tell you."<p>

Finn looked at Kurt, but he seemed just as mystified as Finn was.

When they entered the kitchen, Burt and his mom were already sitting at the table holding hands. Kurt made a small sound and looked about ten shades paler than usual when Finn glanced over at him.

"You okay, dude?"

"Fine," Kurt said in that low voice he used when he wanted to drop a subject. He very deliberately pulled out a chair and sat in it like having control over that would give him control over everything else that came his way. Kurt was weird like that, but it was something that made him Kurt, so Finn actually kinda liked it.

He could see why Kurt might be worried though; their parents looked super serious.

"Finn, Kurt-"

"You're not sick again, are you dad?" Kurt cut in quickly. "Because you've been watching your diet, I know you have. I've made sure you're doing everything right."

"Woah, woah, calm down. I'm fine. That has nothing to do with why we want to talk to you."

Kurt sucked in a breath like he'd been without air for years. Finn remembered how scary Burt's heart attack was and Burt wasn't even his dad. Not in the same way, anyway.

"It's actually more to do with me," Finn's mom said. He really hoped she wasn't about to say she was sick, cause he wasn't sure he'd be able to handle that.

Burt's eyes started to twinkle happily.

"I-I don't really know how to say it," she continued.

"Do you want me to tell them?"

"Well…"

"No, you should tell them."

"Maybe you should-"

"We said you would."

"Um, guys," Finn said. He was getting a distinct flashback here.

"We're pregnant!"

Burt was smiling like he'd been told he could have all his favorite things for breakfast for the rest of his life.

Kurt was practically bouncing off his chair. "Oh my god! Oh my god! You're joking! Please tell me you're not joking."

"Nope, we're gonna have a baby in the house February 14th," Burt said, still beaming.

Finn felt numb.

"Oh! A true baby of love!" Kurt clapped his hands together excitedly.

"And it's a girl," Finn's mom said with a soft smile. She looked so quietly happy Finn felt a little guilty for not feeling it with her.

"Wait," Finn said, confusion rushing through the numbness. "February's not that far away. How long have you been pregnant?"

"Honey-"

"And why are you only telling us now? Don't you find out what sex it is like halfway through the pregnancy?"

"Honey, I didn't want to worry you guys until we knew everything was going to be okay. There was a chance I might miscarry, or something might not be developing right and we wanted to be able to answer any questions you might have."

Even Kurt looked kinda pissed off at that. It wasn't like they were kids.

"Honestly, honey, I was scared," she said, reaching across the table for his hand. He grudgingly let her hold it. "But everything's going to be fine and we'll figure out how to make all this work. We've done a pretty good job with the move and everything so far, right? The baby will just be one more thing we'll have to get used to."

"And that's another thing we're going to have to talk about," Burt said. "A lot's going to change in just a few months and we're gonna need both of your help to get through it."

"I've got the nursery covered, dad," Kurt said quickly, the calculating look in his eyes telling them all that he had already discarded four color schemes and had moved on to fabric selection.

Burt smiled knowingly. "That's great, Kurt, but I was actually talking about other stuff. Money's gonna get tighter what with all the stuff we're gonna have to get for the baby, so you boys will have to start paying your own way on some things."

"Isn't that what baby showers are for?" Finn asked.

"The baby shower will help us get some of the bigger stuff that we don't have saved from when you two were babies, but I'm talking about diapers and formula and that kind of thing. They can get expensive pretty fast."

Kurt looked distinctly less excited.

"Now I'm not saying we're cutting you off, I'm just saying you should think about getting some weekend jobs to pay for clothes and video games and such. Maybe start paying your own cell phone bills," he said with a pointed look at Kurt. "You're welcome to come back to work at the garage after school if you want to, but it might be a good idea to get some experience in other places too."

Finn hated working at the kinds of places that would hire him. He'd never been able to stand working anywhere for longer than it took for him to pay off whatever he needed to.

"You're both about to go off to college soon, so you might even look at it as practice for the real world."

Practice for the real world. They were being replaced by a shiny new baby that would cry and poop and generally be a nuisance. He thought his mom loved him more than that.

"Honey, don't look like that," she said sadly. "We're not trying to replace you; we didn't even plan this, but it happened and now we all just have to make the best of it. And it's kind of exciting, right? You both get to be big brothers."

They didn't plan it? But then… Ew. Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew! Not thinking about that. _So_ not thinking about that.

"You'll both be great older brothers," Burt said. "Just think of all the stuff you can teach her when she gets bigger. And you won't even be here for the hard parts. She'll look up to you both as heroes who come swooping in on holidays and in the summer to spoil her rotten."

"I bet they have fabulous baby clothes in New York," Kurt said absently.

"Right," Burt chuckled. "And I'm hoping maybe you can help me get her at least a little interested in sports, Finn. It'd be kinda nice to have another kid around who doesn't always roll her eyes when I mention ESPN."

Kurt looked mock-insulted at that comment and rolled his eyes pointedly. Finn noticed he still had a bit of a smile on his face when he did it though. He wished he could be so happy about it.

"Yeah, that'd be great," he said, trying it out for his mom's sake. They seemed to buy his smile and left him alone for the rest of the conversation.

Kurt kept going on and on about baby accessories and the latest nursery trends while his mom gushed about lacey dresses. Finn wondered if he could leave the room without being noticed.

He felt so… something. He couldn't even put a name to it. It was weird to be thinking about babies again. He knew it was nothing like with Quinn, but suddenly a lot of the confusion, the emotions he'd felt back in his sophomore year were rushing back to overwhelm him. He felt a little nauseous.

His mom and Burt looked so happy about it. They deserved to be happy. And Kurt was practically radiating joy at the news. Finn felt that rush of protectiveness toward the smaller boy that he'd been feeling more and more since they'd become brothers, and he knew he didn't want to be the reason that smile went away. He resolved to make himself as happy about it as everyone else was. Somehow.

* * *

><p>"It's a girl?"<p>

"That's what they said. A little girl due on Valentine's Day. How cute is that?"

The first thing Kurt did when he went up to his room was call Blaine. His mind was a jumble of thoughts, but he knew he wanted to share all of them with his boyfriend.

"I'm so glad you're happy about it."

"I think I am. It's just so weird to think about. I mean, a baby. It's kind of huge," Kurt shifted his phone to his shoulder and automatically picked up one of his lotions from his vanity. His moisturizing routine was at least one thing he could do without thinking.

"Actually, Kurt, I sort of already knew," Blaine said hesitantly.

Kurt didn't say anything for a moment. How was it possible that his boyfriend knew before he did? Carole was _his_ step-mother.

"What do you mean you 'sort of already knew'?"

"Look, Kurt, Carole didn't tell me on purpose, okay? She let me in one night before anyone else was home and almost immediately ran for the bathroom to throw up. I… kind of refused to leave her alone until she told me what was up."

Kurt stared at a picture of the two of them but didn't say anything. Suddenly all the random fruit Blaine had been bringing around made a weird kind of sense. It had been getting progressively bigger as the weeks went by; he must have been tracking the size of the baby. Kurt couldn't decide if he felt more betrayed or left out, and he hated himself a little for thinking he felt that way at all.

"Kurt?" His silence was obviously scaring his boyfriend. "Please don't be angry at me. I didn't tell you because Carole asked me not to, that's the only reason. She was worried she might miscarry and, well, I kind of figured it was her news to tell anyway. I've been trying to get her to tell you guys for weeks."

Kurt closed his eyes and tried to steady himself. Weeks. Blaine had known for _weeks_. For a moment, Kurt had to remind himself how to breathe. He knew Blaine was right, it wasn't his place to share the news and the part of Kurt that was sick of all the back-stabbing at McKinley respected that, but it still hurt that he seemed to be the last to know.

A sound at his door brought his attention to Finn hovering in the hallway with two glasses of milk in his hands and a bag of store bought cookies under his arm. Of anyone, Finn had the most reason to be upset about this. He'd even figured out what was going on before Kurt had. All the secrecy… It was no wonder he was so upset downstairs. Kurt smiled tightly and jerked his head to invite him in.

"Listen, Blaine, I'm kind of tired and I don't really know what to think about all this. Can I call you tomorrow?"

"Kurt-"

"I'm not mad at you, I promise. I just kind of want to go to sleep."

"Are you sure? I'm here to vent at if you need me to."

Finn was still lurking awkwardly in the doorway. Kurt took one of the glasses and pointedly gestured to his desk chair.

"I'm sure," he couldn't help smiling slightly at the anxious to please look he was sure was on his boyfriend's face. "I'll call you tomorrow, all right?"

"All right. I love you."

"I love you too."

For a few moments after they hung up, Kurt forgot he wasn't alone and allowed the sappy smile he always got when Blaine said that to light up his face. Then Finn choked on a cookie.

"Really, Finn?"

"Sorry. Do you want me to go or –"

"What?"

"You said you were tired."

Kurt smiled and reseated himself at his vanity to finish up his moisturizing routine.

"I just said that to Blaine to get him off the phone."

"So, you are mad at him," Finn had the look of confused concentration he got when trying to figure out girls.

"I'm incredibly annoyed with him, yes, but I know it's not really his fault and I wanted to end the conversation before my jealous side said something stupid and provoked a fight. Besides, you looked like you wanted to have one of our lady chats and that's something we could probably both use right now."

"O-kay," Finn still looked slightly confused. "And don't call them 'lady chats', dude, we're both guys. It's weird."

"Don't call me 'dude' and I'll consider renaming them something more manly," Kurt shot back automatically. They smiled at each other and Kurt knew neither of them would give in.

"So, did some guy hit on Blaine or something?" Finn asked, shoving another cookie into his mouth. Kurt stared at him through his reflection.

"Why would you think someone hit on him?"

"You said you were jealous but it wasn't his fault. Rachel said once she'd be surprised if he didn't get a bunch of people shoving their numbers in his face on a daily basis. And then she said something about magnets but I kind of stopped paying attention cause her skirt was riding up."

"Classy, Finn," Kurt shook his head then stood up and cuddled into the pillows at the head of his bed. "And no, I'm not jealous that someone hit on him. Although Rachel's right that he does get hit on fairly regularly. Usually by girls," he shrugged. "It's a hazard of knowing him, really."

"Then why are you pissed at him?"

Kurt took a long drink from his glass and wished he didn't have to be the one to tell him, but the taller boy deserved to know.

"Apparently he's known about the baby for a while now."

Just as expected, Finn had that awful betrayed look Kurt had seen on his face far too many times since getting to know him.

"Wait, why did he know-"

"It wasn't on purpose, Finn. He caught her throwing up one day and then the truth came out."

"Still, we should've been the first people she told when she found out. I mean, after your dad. It's gonna be _our_ sister."

"I know," Kurt sighed.

"I mean, it's weird enough this is happening in the first place. The fact that she's halfway through the pregnancy and is only just telling us? I feel cheated. She's supposed to be my mom. She's supposed to tell me stuff like this."

Finn was fidgeting in the way that usually meant he wanted a hug. With a soft sigh, Kurt gently repositioned himself so Finn could climb on the bed with him if he wanted. He didn't expect him to, but he thought that was the sort of thing brothers might do to comfort each other. That or blow something up in a video game or something.

Finn continued to pout into his empty milk glass.

"I always kind of wanted a little sister," Kurt said quietly. "Before my mom died, I'd think up names I thought were pretty or plan out princess parties we could have together. When my mom first got sick, I thought she was pregnant. I'd overheard some kid talking about his mom's morning sickness, so when I caught my mom throwing up a lot, I got really excited. It was devastating when I found out it was just a side effect of her chemo-therapy."

He jumped when he felt the bed dip and a hand hesitantly touch his shoulder. He tended to forget he was talking to actual people when he told stories about his mom.

Kurt gripped Finn's hand with his free one and offered him his practically full milk glass with a soft smile. Finn laughed and polished it off, settling himself next to him on the bed.

"What about you?" Kurt asked. "You always seemed the older brother type."

"Hey, I'm made to be a big brother. I've done a pretty good job with you haven't I? Once I got my act together, I mean."

"Finn, just because you're bigger than I am does not mean you are older. We've had this conversation."

"Whatever, dude," he rolled his eyes teasingly. "You totally look up to me."

"Literally," Kurt said drily.

"You know, I hope the baby's not this mean," Finn pretended to pout. "I don't think I can deal with two siblings who make fun of me all the time."

"You know I only do it cause I love you," Kurt said without thinking. Both of them went rigid.

"I mean, as a brother," he said quickly. "Not in the creepy stalker way I did in sophomore year. Not that I actually stalked you. Fuck."

Kurt wondered if there would ever come a day when those months of desperation wouldn't cast a dark and deeply embarrassing shadow over their relationship.

"Dude, we're cool now, right?" Finn asked quietly. "I mean, you've got Blaine now and we're brothers and everything. I don't want what happened back then to be weird like this. You were creepy and I was an ass and, like, let's just leave it there, okay? Besides, I kinda love you too. As a brother. I always wanted one when I was a kid, and now that I actually have one, it's kind of awesome, you know? Even if you are kinda girly."

Kurt sobbed out a laugh and shoulder-bumped Finn.

"Maybe our sister will be a total tomboy and will be able to kick your ass at football," he said wetly. Finn laughed and stacked the empty glasses together.

"That'd actually be pretty awesome."

"It would figure that I'd get the little sister I always wanted and she'd be more into sports than you are."

"Hey, she could be into sports and still like girly stuff. It happens, right?"

"Thank you," Kurt didn't know where Finn got his sporadic ability to say just the right thing, but he was grateful for it.

"Hey, don't worry about it," Finn shoulder-bumped him back and lumbered to his feet. "You actually managed to make me feel better about all this. I'm not sure exactly how you did, but it definitely helped."

"I'm just amazing like that."

"Night, Kurt," Finn laughed.

"Goodnight."

It was funny. Kurt had gone upstairs hoping a talk with his boyfriend would lessen his confusion about the news of the day, but instead it was a talk with his brother that had done that. Maybe he should give Finn more credit from now on.

He brushed some cookie crumbs off his comforter with a scowl.

Maybe someday his lessons on cleanliness would actually get through Finn's thick skull.

* * *

><p>Kurt still wasn't talking to him.<p>

Yes, it had only been a day, but he was used to texting Kurt between classes and talking to him as soon as they got out of glee. And Kurt hadn't replied to a single one of his messages. For the first time since starting back to school, Blaine wondered if maybe he should go home for the weekend. If Kurt's lack of response was anything to go by he wouldn't exactly be welcome at the Hummel-Hudson residence. Not by Kurt, anyway.

Blaine was a little shocked he felt so lonely.

He'd never had anywhere to go on weekends before he met Kurt and it hadn't fazed him. He'd just done homework or tinkered with song ideas that never seemed to gel properly. Now he felt completely aimless.

He'd been so excited to get Kurt's phone call last night. They could finally talk about the baby together and Blaine could toss around some of the name ideas he'd been researching for over a month. They could maybe even talk about what their future children's names might be.

But Kurt was avoiding him and now he felt so stupid for fantasizing about his future life with Kurt, for dreaming about what their wedding might be like and how many extra bedrooms their kids might need.

They hadn't even been dating a year. Who knew if they'd last long enough to get to that point. Just because he was desperate for affection didn't mean Kurt felt the same.

A buzzing in his pocket startled him out of his melancholy.

**Sorry. I'm an ass. Can we talk? -K**

Blaine had never been more relieved to get a text from anyone in his life. He didn't even notice hitting his speed dial until he was holding his phone to his ear and listening breathlessly for Kurt's voice.

"I love you."

"Kurt?"

"I just wanted to get that out of the way before we said anything else."

Blaine smiled and tried to remember how to breathe. "I love you too."

"Good. I was kind of afraid I might have pulled a Finn and Rachel and messed this up over something stupid."

"You could never mess this up. You had every right to feel the way you did. I was actually kind of expecting it."

"You were expecting me to pull a diva and not reassure my boyfriend that I still love him even if I'm jealous he knew about my sister for ages before I did?"

Blaine chuckled and settled himself against the head of his bed. "Something like that. It's nothing worse than what I probably would have done if the situation was reversed."

"You'd have been much more civilized about it though."

"I also probably wouldn't have called you for closer to a week after throwing a fit about it. I'm glad you're not as proud as I am. About this kind of stuff, anyway."

"Well, it helped that your last text was so sweet."

Blaine blushed. It had been desperate and corny and maybe a little inappropriate. Katy Perry lyrics often were.

"How are you handling it? The news, I mean." He really hoped Kurt would want to change the subject away from how pathetic he was.

"Honestly? I keep flip-flopping from excited to nervous to excited to I really never wanted the confirmation that my parents had sex."

Blaine laughed.

"I talked to Finn about it last night after we hung up and that helped a little. A lot actually. I think he was a lot more upset than he let on when he found out. Not that I'm really surprised. But we both really want to be big brothers, so I think it'll be okay. Mostly I think it was just all the secrecy that hurt so much. It never seems to cause anything but trouble."

"I knew you'd be upset about that."

"I understand why you did it, I just…"

"I know," Blaine said softly.

"Let's not keep secrets from each other anymore, okay? About anything. I hate the idea of either of us hurting each other over something like this."

Blaine's heart felt like it would swell out of chest. How was it possible that his love for this boy could get any bigger?

"Deal."

"Blaine?"

"Yeah?"

"If I made triple chocolate fudge cupcakes with peppermint swirl icing would you maybe think of coming over this weekend?"

Blaine closed his eyes and smiled at the ceiling. "I'm already on my way out the door."

* * *

><p>Carole smiled as she looked across the room and saw the four most important men in her life looking avidly at the computer screen set up next to her.<p>

The boys had been desperate to get a proper look at the baby, and seeing them now, she didn't know what she had been thinking in not telling them for so many months. Blaine especially looked riveted as he watched the baby squirm her little dance, and Carole had to hide a laugh each time she caught him sneaking glances at Kurt, so obviously thinking of their future together that she wanted to hug him.

Carole's belly measured twenty-six inches at the beginning of the appointment, which was only a little bigger than it was supposed to be at this point in her pregnancy. She only had a few major tests to go before they entered a waiting game for the birth, and so far it looked like she'd have a perfectly healthy baby. She almost couldn't believe it.

She'd been convinced after Christopher died that she'd never have any more kids. She had hoped for a new man to be a father to Finn, but that was as far as any of her daydreams went.

Now, looking around the room, she saw her son doing his best not to cry in front of his brother's boyfriend. She saw her stepson smiling in a way she'd been worried he wouldn't ever smile again. She saw her husband – brilliant, caring, wonderful Burt – looking over them all with pride. He even included Blaine in that look, which touched her more than she could say. Blaine may not officially be family, but Carole already thought of him as another one of her sons.

Carole looked back at the screen and watched her baby girl float into a somersault.

Even after all the hardships they'd faced individually and as a family, she still had difficulty understanding the magnitude of luck they had to be where they were now, watching this tiny creature show off inside her. But she was getting there.

* * *

><p>It wasn't the all pink nursery Burt had dreamt of, but as he watched Kurt carefully hand paint tiny pink and white flowers onto the branches of a giant mural tree he couldn't help but be satisfied.<p>

The boys had all come together to give the baby a room any of her future friends would envy. In the end, Kurt wasn't even the one to plan most of it. Blaine had suggested a Japanese cherry blossom theme and Finn had decided the room had to be at least one shade of purple. Kurt simply figured out how to make it all work.

And boy, did it work. It was a room befitting a princess, which is exactly what she would be with so many people to fawn over her. There were three shades of purple artfully blocked along the walls, with the darkest shade also used over the entirety of the far wall in the room to better set off Kurt's hand-painted tree. Stray petals from the tree blew in an imaginary wind from the window to scatter across the next wall and show off a framed portrait of the four of them from the wedding.

Burt loved that picture. It reminded him what it felt like to finally be a family again, and he couldn't help but be touched that Kurt had deemed it worthy to hang on the nursery wall. The gesture made him feel for the first time that they could actually do this. As a family.

Burt smiled. He couldn't wait.

* * *

><p><strong>Reviews make my muse happy.<strong>


	3. 3rd Trimester

So, this chapter is a bit shorter than the others, but it's also got a lot more Blaine. Hopefully he makes up for it.

After reading over what I've written, I kinda wish I had either edited the story differently as a whole or framed it in a slightly different way. As it is I'm pondering over supplemental one-shots to fill in some obvious gaps. If there's anything in particular you wish were more fully developed, or a scene that ended leaving you with a feeling of, "Hey, I was reading that," I'd love to know. I won't guarantee I'll write on it, but I might be able to slip it in somewhere.

****I do not own Glee. Any pregnancy information included in this story is true to the best of my knowledge and research abilities, but as I am not a doctor and have never been pregnant, feel free to take it with a grain of salt and do your own research****.****

* * *

><p>Carole's breasts leaked. It was an intermittent flow of yellowy pre-milk that stained her bra and chaffed her nipples.<p>

Her bladder leaked whenever she laughed or sneezed or breathed the wrong way. The baby had taken to doing cartwheels in her belly at night, so her bladder leaked then too. So much for Kegel exercises.

Burt had looked at her oddly when she piled wholesale-sized packages of panty liners and flat cotton pads into their shopping cart, but he hadn't said anything. He sold himself short sometimes, but Burt Hummel was a smart man.

* * *

><p>Blaine pulled his keys out of his ignition and simply sat in his car. Outside, the Lima streetlights highlighted the tiny, dry snowflakes that still occasionally fluttered down from the sky. There was only a thin dusting of white over the grass in the yards around him; he knew it would all melt away by mid-morning the next day.<p>

He wondered absently what it felt like to be so ephemeral. Would you be conscious that you were ending before you'd barely begun to exist or would your perception of time be such that you thought your life was lasting for ages, the interminable minutiae filling up your every moment so that you almost wished for an end to come quickly?

A car passed by on the street and Blaine turned his thoughts to the people in it. Were they only now going home after too much Thanksgiving dinner? Too much family, perhaps? It was unfair to think it, but Blaine envied them their petty family squabbles over stuffing, their older relative who drank too much and embarrassed the children.

Blaine sighed and looked over at the lights in his boyfriend's house. It wasn't fair for him to barge in on their family time like this. Their time together shouldn't be cut off just because his family hated him. He'd known for years he could never live up to his father's expectations of him, could never be the daughter his mother still so desperately craved. He'd never fit in with his small-minded white-bred cousins either, who had always looked at him a little askance because of his uniquely olive complexion.

Blaine had always done his best to blend in as much as possible whatever situation he found himself in, but after months of being able to say and do almost anything he wanted with Kurt, being polite and accommodating was draining. He didn't know who he really was, and he knew it was because he was always trying to be what everyone around him wanted him to be. He was sick of it. He was sick of all of it.

He hadn't exactly stormed out of his grandfather's house, but he hadn't left peacefully either. He had listened to his grandfather's homophobic rambling for the last time. If his family members couldn't be bothered to keep civil tongues in their heads, they didn't need his voice to lead them in Christmas carols either. If they couldn't resist sneering about 'the gays' in New York ruining everything for the rest of the country then they didn't need him to play games with the younger cousins or to bring his mom's widely-favored version of maruya for dessert. He was done with them.

The thing that hurt the most, that he should have expected but was still surprised by, was that his dad hadn't defended him. He'd just sat there with his arms crossed, occasionally nodding his head. His stepmother had even joined in on the conversation, bitching to an aunt about a 'flamer' at work who constantly put her on edge with his talk about the latest fashions. Blaine knew it was a dig at Kurt. It had taken everything in him not to yell at her.

Blaine wasn't sure what he was doing. Driving away from his grandfather's house, he'd had a momentary idea of leaving everything behind and starting fresh in Chicago. It was only a five hour drive from his grandfather's house. He could have been there before sunrise. It would have been fitting to wake up to a new life in a new place at the same time everyone around him was getting out of bed.

But then he thought of Kurt.

Kurt would be so disappointed if he found out Blaine had run away from his problems again. And even worse, he'd blame himself. He'd probably do something silly like start thinking he wasn't good enough for Blaine when in reality he was the best thing that had ever happened to him.

And thinking of Kurt meant thinking about Kurt's family. Finn who wanted desperately to do the right thing but often couldn't figure out how. Burt who was so protective but always so amazingly supportive, even of Blaine. Carole who had become something like a second mother to him and always greeted him with a smile. And he thought about the baby: the ultimate fresh start, in a way.

Before he knew it he was turning onto the familiar route of I-75 and following it north the way he had so many times before. Now that he was at the house though, he didn't know what to do. He had an open invitation most of the time to sleep on the couch if he needed to, but what he really wanted was to cry himself to sleep in Kurt's arms, with the smell of Kurt all around him, the sound of his voice in his ears. He was so tired of feeling like a guest in his own life. He just wanted to belong.

Blaine took a breath and looked over at the house again. Carole was peeking out of the curtains with a concerned look on her face.

There was nothing else for it, he thought ruefully. He'd have to go in.

* * *

><p>Burt opened the door before Blaine had a chance to knock. The kid looked like he'd been crying for hours and most of his hair had come out of its gel. Burt wondered how long he'd been driving around in his car before ending up here. He shut the door and took Blaine's coat.<p>

"You need a place to stay tonight, kid?"

Blaine's eyes sparkled with unshed tears. Nothing came out of his mouth for a few moments so he nodded and shifted his eyes to the floor.

"Thank you. I-I didn't want to impose, but-"

"Imposing nothing. I told you ages ago: you need a place to stay, you come here. No arguments."

Blaine nodded and struggled with himself over something. Burt wondered just what the hell had happened. He knew family tensions could be high during the holidays, but he didn't remember any of his buddies' family feuds ever reducing them to this. He almost missed the smug superiority the kid usually exuded just by being himself.

Carole turned off the TV and passed close behind him to envelop Blaine in a hug.

"Whatever you need, honey, we're here," she said, petting his hair. Blaine clutched back at her and broke into sobs. Damn that kid's family.

Carole guided him to the couch and he practically collapsed into her lap, the broken sounds coming out of his throat more pained than before as Carole made soothing clucking noises above him.

Burt shifted awkwardly and wondered if he should rouse Kurt from his pre-Black Friday slumber. He'd be hell to wake up, but he'd want to be here and he'd be worlds more useful than Burt was. Burt never had any clue what to do with crying people. They made him want to leave and beat up whoever had reduced them to tears. That wasn't practical, though, and he'd be of no use to anybody if he was stuck in jail for assault.

He turned to retrieve Kurt, but found him standing at the foot of the stairs in his pajamas and matching bathrobe, staring at Blaine in horror. He rushed to the couch and dropped to his knees beside his boyfriend, curling an arm around his waist and pressing a kiss to the middle of his back. Burt shifted awkwardly again.

"Blaine, honey, it's all right. Whatever happened I'm here. You're gonna be fine."

Blaine uncurled himself from Carole only to launch himself at Kurt, knocking him backwards to the floor. He buried his nose in Kurt's neck and Kurt's eyes flew back and forth between Burt and Carole, silently asking what had happened. Burt rubbed his hand over his head and joined Carole on the couch.

"I think this calls for some hot chocolate," Carole said, squeezing Burt's knee before hauling herself up belly first. "Blaine, there should be some fresh washcloths in the bathroom if you want to wash your face."

Blaine seemed to remember himself and pulled away from Kurt, fiercely brushing tears off his face and trying to compose himself. It was only then that Burt noticed he'd stopped crying.

Kurt murmured something to him and Blaine nodded, standing stiffly and leaving the room.

"What happened?" Kurt asked quietly, taking Carole's spot on the couch.

"I don't know. He barely made it through the door before he broke down. Your guess is as good as mine."

Kurt gnawed on his lip and stared in the direction Blaine had left in.

Burt sat back into the couch and crossed his arms. It had finally come to the big decision time. He wasn't thrilled with the idea of his son's boyfriend moving in with them, even after four month's warning to get used to it. Honestly, the kid had all but been living with them most of that time anyway. He technically lived in the dorms at Dalton, but he ate with them almost every night and had used his couch privileges at least half a dozen times since they'd been granted.

He was polite and Burt believed he genuinely cared for Kurt, maybe even loved him. And he didn't think they'd slept together yet. He could only hope they'd respect him enough to wait until they moved out to do anything on that level.

Still, it was clearly something that needed to be done. For all their sakes.

Blaine came back into the room and sat in one of the arm chairs, avoiding eye contact from either of them. He looked a bit like a child sitting in a grown-up's chair.

Kurt stood and squished himself into the chair beside him. Blaine automatically laid his head on his shoulder and closed his eyes. The silence stretched on.

"Four hot chocolates, made to order," Carole said brightly as she walked back into the room and began handing them out. Burt could see the stress lines pulling around her eyes.

"So, want to tell us what happened?" Burt asked pointedly, putting his mug on the coffee table.

Blaine was silent for a few more moments, apparently entranced with the contents of his mug.

"My family hates me."

"Honey, I'm sure they don't hate you," Carole said soothingly. Burt thought it was more her own wishes in regards to the matter than her actual belief.

Blaine snorted and shook his head. "All of the talk tonight was about 'the gays' ruining this and being to blame for that and I just… I couldn't take it anymore. I actually almost yelled at my eighty year old grandfather," he paused. "Among other people. And my dad, he just sat there. They all know I'm gay and none of them… I just, I can't go back to them after that. I refuse to put up with it anymore."

Kurt murmured something negative sounding and pulled him closer. Blaine leaned into him and took another sip from his mug.

Burt felt Carole squeeze his knee. He knew what he had to do.

"Listen, Blaine, it sounds like you've got a pretty toxic environment back home. No kid should have to deal with that. If you want to move in here, permanently, we can make a place for you. Something that isn't the couch."

Both boys stared at him in shock, their backs straight as rails and their eyes bigger than he'd ever seen them.

"Are you serious?" Kurt asked breathlessly.

"Yeah, Kurt, I'm serious. Carole and I have already discussed it, and quite frankly I can't see waiting any longer. We've both noticed how often you're over here, Blaine – and don't even think about it," he added when Blaine looked about ready to apologize. "I've told you, you need a place to stay you come here. You're not a burden, so don't even think it."

Blaine looked like he was about to cry again, and Burt had to remind himself not to go hunting anybody down.

"If this is what being around your family does to you, I don't want you around them anymore. You're important to my son and you're important to this family. We're not about to let you be miserable all the time if there's anything we can do to help it."

Blaine broke down again, but this time the tears were quieter, more like tears of disbelief as Kurt quickly put both of their mugs on the coffee table and cradled him into his shoulder the way Burt remembered Elizabeth comforting him when he was a child. He even had her hands.

"Blaine, honey, we all love you. Don't ever forget that," Carole said gently.

Blaine gasped out a sob, but didn't answer. When he finally pulled out of Kurt's hold enough to look at them, his eyes were shining with a degree of gratitude Burt hadn't thought possible to express through a look alone.

"I-I don't know how I'll ever be able to repay-"

"Blaine, you're a part of this family now. This is what families do for each other. You just focus on being yourself, and that will be repayment enough," Carole said, clearly wanting to hug him but unwilling to usurp Kurt to do it. Burt didn't think he could have said it any better himself, even if the idea of Blaine officially being family still unnerved him a little. Kurt gave them a teary smile.

Blaine closed his eyes and took a couple of deep breaths.

"Um, I left my stuff in my car," he said, already trying to reclaim his usual composure.

"I'll help you get it," Kurt said quietly, tearing his gaze away from Burt and Carole to focus it solely on his boyfriend again.

Blaine nodded and the two stood, quietly collecting their coats and going out the front door without another word. Kurt didn't even seem to realize he was still wearing his pajamas.

"What 'stuff' do you think they're getting?" Burt asked quietly, still staring at the door. Had Blaine been planning to live out of his car this weekend if they didn't take him in?

He heard a ceramic clink on the table and looked at his wife.

"Honey, Blaine's been carrying around an overnight bag ever since you gave him couch privileges. Didn't you ever notice before?"

He hadn't. Actually, he hadn't given much thought to Blaine's sleeping arrangements other than to make sure he and Kurt weren't on the same floor.

The door opened and the boys reappeared with a rush of cold air. Judging from the snow in their hair the storm was picking up again.

Kurt gave them a small smile and began leading Blaine upstairs.

"Boys, I don't feel comfortable with the two of you sleeping in the same room," Burt said warningly.

"Dad…"

"Sir, I promise, nothing will happen, but, can I – I need to be with Kurt tonight. Please."

Burt had never dreamed he might be in this situation when he was holding Kurt in his arms for the first time. There were really no rules for this. Despite their promises, anything might happen if he let them sleep in the same bed tonight. There were a lot of ways people could give and receive comfort. On the other hand, he couldn't think of two more trustworthy boys when it came to this sort of thing.

Blaine's eyes were rimmed with a raw-looking red and tear tracks still shined brightly on his face.

Burt closed his own eyes and sighed. "Fine. But it's just for tonight. We'll set you up a room of your own tomorrow. And don't even think about closing the door tonight, got it?"

The boys nodded slowly and turned toward the staircase together, Kurt's thumb rubbing circles where his hand lay against the small of Blaine's back. Before they reached the bottom, Blaine turned back and looked Burt in the eye.

"Mr. Hummel, I… Thank you."

"It's Burt. And you're welcome."

"Get some sleep tonight, honey," Carole said gently. Blaine smiled at her with his eyes, then took Kurt's hand and followed him upstairs.

Burt rubbed his hand over his head and collapsed back into the couch.

"Are you okay?"

"I did the right thing, right?"

Carole took his hand in both of hers and cuddled into his side.

"You did the only thing you could do."

"We're going to have to set completely different ground rules. I'm not even sure where to start."

"Honey, they're both good boys. And Blaine respects you too much to try to take advantage of anything. We'll work it out."

Burt smiled tightly. "He respects me, huh? You sure it's not fear? I've never exactly been encouraging of their relationship. I haven't stood in the way of anything, and I'm glad they've found each other, but I won't deny I'd kinda hoped Kurt wouldn't date anyone until at least college."

Carole chuckled. "Honey, you can't stop love. Kurt's the kind of boy who would go chasing it until he found it no matter what stood in his way."

"Yeah, he is."

"And have you really never seen the way Blaine looks at you? He gets the same yearning for your approval on his face that Finn has anytime you walk in the room. The boys all adore you."

Burt felt a jolt at the mention of Finn. He hadn't thought about his reaction to all this; the last thing any of them needed was another delayed blow up because they'd forgotten to consult the boy.

"Do you think Finn will have a problem with all this? It's not exactly fair to him."

Carole took a deep breath. "We'll just have to catch him in the morning and explain things. I'm not sure how much he knows about Blaine's situation, but he'll be fine with it once he knows what's going on. He's a good boy. Man. Whatever."

Burt smiled and squeezed her hand. He'd been having those moments lately too.

"Maybe I can have him help me put better doors up in that den-office nook thing we still haven't figured out what to do with. He's been bugging me to teach him how to do more home improvement type stuff and I did tell Blaine he'd get his own room."

"And I suppose it's just convenient that putting Blaine in the den would keep him and Kurt on different floors?" Carole grinned back sardonically.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Mhmm."

Burt blushed.

"Shut up."

"Honey, we'll work it out. Besides, I doubt much will change. He's been one of our boys for ages now."

"Has he?"

Carole was giving him her no bullshit look. Burt laughed. He wasn't sure he'd go quite that far, but he supposed it was close enough to the truth. He leaned in to kiss her.

"Come on," he said, hauling himself up and offering her a hand. "Blaine or no, Kurt'll have us up at the crack of dawn to go shopping. We might as well get some sleep in."

Carole let him help her up and rubbed her belly absently as she started collecting the mugs from earlier. Burt let her put them in the sink but stopped her before she could begin to do the dishes. They could do that tomorrow. One more thing to do wouldn't make that much difference.

* * *

><p>Carole felt like a walking house. Well, a waddling house maybe. Her center of balance was so off-kilter she felt like she was constantly correcting herself.<p>

Her feet and ankles were disgustingly swollen; she was glad she could no longer really see them. She didn't even want to think about the varicose veins she knew were popping out of her thighs. They tended to throb when she stood for too long at once.

She was also developing carpal tunnel in her left hand. The baby was pinching a nerve somewhere and for some reason the effect went straight to her hand. If it got much worse she'd have to take maternity leave a full two months sooner than planned.

Oh, and Braxton Hicks could kiss her ass. Especially in the middle of the night.

Thank god for Burt and his magical massages.

* * *

><p>Finn was obsessed with his mom's belly. He'd taken to rubbing it, trying to get the baby to move. It was one of the weirdest things he'd ever felt. Sometimes he thought he could even see his sister moving around under his mom's skin. She said it was too soon for that, but he swore he could. It was seriously like there was a little alien in there.<p>

He'd even taken to calling her The Alien, though his mom always swatted at him if she heard him say it. She'd decided she wanted to name her after his aunt Susan, whose husband had beat her to death before he was born. Finn thought that was a little creepy, but his mom was set on it, so he guessed her name would be Susan. Susie, maybe? He liked The Alien better.

The closer it got to Christmas, and the bigger her belly got, the more difficult it got for his mom to breathe. At first he was really freaked out by that, but she told him it was fairly normal at this stage of pregnancy and just stopped climbing the stairs to get his dirty laundry. Kurt bitched at him that he should have started doing his own years ago anyway, but then started doing it for him claiming he'd just ruin it. He was cool like that.

Despite the brush off, Finn still watched his mom closely whenever he caught her breathing heavily. He noticed Blaine would watch her too. She wouldn't let either of them do anything more than that though, because when they tried to help her do physical stuff she'd snap at them in a really scary voice and say she wasn't made of glass, she could carry a blanket to the next room. Kurt would call them both idiots and then fondly pat Blaine's ass. Finn really didn't need to see that.

It was weird how normal living with Blaine was. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that he was practically a constant presence in the house anyway, but Finn had still expected to be at least a little weirded out by his officially _living there_.

Burt had insisted they convert the den into another bedroom for him. Finn figured he'd probably have been really weirded out if Blaine had just moved right into Kurt's bedroom like Kurt wanted. He wouldn't be able to not think about them having sex if they were sleeping in the same bed together. Besides, it wouldn't be fair if they could share a bed and Rachel only ever got the floor when she slept over. Granted she only slept over if Kurt had a slumber party, but it was the principal of the thing.

A knock on the front door distracted him from his thoughts and Finn changed course to open it.

A man with curly brown hair stood on the front step with his arms crossed. He seemed to be a bit taken aback to see Finn and looked down to check a piece of paper in his hand.

"Is this the Hummel residence?"

"Hummel-Hudson, yeah. Can I help you?"

"I'm looking for my son, Blaine."

Finn had a feeling movie night was about to get a lot more interesting.

* * *

><p>The last person Blaine expected to be at the door was his father. The moment he heard his voice, the smile had instantly died on his face and his heart began to pound in that sickeningly familiar way.<p>

He stood to face him. "Dad, wha-what are you doing here?"

David Anderson took in the room and its occupants with obvious disapproval, his eyes lingering on Kurt.

"I got a little concerned when you didn't come home at the start of your winter break. I went into your room looking for your address book only to find that you'd moved all your stuff out."

Once again Blaine felt the awful squeeze of betrayal in his chest. He'd moved out so he wouldn't feel it anymore, but here it was, just as crushing as ever, leaving him feeling just as empty.

"You didn't realize until now that I moved out almost a month ago?"

His dad's eyes flickered with some unknown emotion before glaring at him.

"How was I supposed to know? You never come home from that school you go to. The only time I see you anymore is if you're out on break, and even then you're usually running out the door."

"Didn't you ever think that maybe there was a reason for that?"

"Don't you go blaming this on me, Blaine. You take responsibility for your own mistakes and act like a man. Nobody's going to coddle you in the real world."

It was all Blaine could do not to cry. Always the same circular argument, always the same feeling of worthlessness. All he wanted to do was escape.

"You listen here, buddy," Burt broke in, standing and walking over as though to protect Blaine from some physical attack. "Your son came over here in _tears_ because he was convinced no one in his family loved him. He flat out told me once he thought you wanted to turn him straight, as if you might love him better if he weren't who he is. I don't care what world you come from, that ain't okay. Now maybe I should have made sure all the bases were covered when he moved in here, but as upset as he was I wasn't gonna push too hard and I sure as hell wasn't gonna force him to stay around that house any longer than he had to."

"And what business is it of yours?" his dad asked, cool lawyer voice in full play.

"He's a good kid, and my son loves him. That's enough for me."

The two men glared at each other for an eternity. Blaine felt Kurt slide an arm around his waist and he allowed himself to close his eyes for a moment and lean into it.

"Fine," Blaine's dad said finally. "You want to be a part of this family, Blaine, they can have you. I'm sick of this. You can start paying your own way. Just don't come crying back to me when _he_ eventually breaks your heart and leaves you homeless."

David Anderson glared at them all one last time and stormed out the door.

Blaine collapsed into tears. He'd thought he was done with this.

* * *

><p>Kurt felt guilty for being so excited, but he'd be lying if he said he hadn't wished Blaine would transfer to McKinley for a while now. He missed seeing him in the halls every day and sneaking kisses on their shared off-period. It felt illicit and at McKinley it would be potentially dangerous too, but just the idea of it also felt a little bit sexy and Kurt had to admit he liked that.<p>

Blaine was devastated to leave Dalton behind, of course. It was his second home longer than he and Kurt had known each other, and Kurt knew from experience how difficult it was to abandon that sort of belonging. But Kurt was a naturally selfish person, and he was convinced he could make Blaine feel the same way about McKinley and the New Directions. And at least Blaine already had more friends there than Kurt had when he transferred to Dalton. It would take a little getting used to, but Blaine would fit in just fine. Eventually.

Kurt was worried how Blaine was doing emotionally, though. After his dad confronted them, Blaine retreated to his room and refused to come out until they were opening presents Christmas morning. Kurt still couldn't get him to talk about it.

Their makeout sessions were more heated now, almost desperate. Kurt was getting worried they'd have to take them outside the house again to insure no one walked in on them half-clothed and moaning against each other.

The exact level of intimacy between them that would be allowable according to his dad's new rules wasn't strictly defined, but Kurt was sure they were starting to cross the line. He just wished he could decide how far over that line he was comfortable going.

He wanted to give Blaine all of him, but he didn't want to do it just to distract him from his problems, and whatever protests Blaine might make to the contrary, he was definitely using Kurt to distract himself from whatever was going on in his head. It might feel fantastic in the moment, but Kurt didn't want either of them to regret their first time together - for any reason.

With more self-control than he'd ever thought he would need, Kurt detached himself from Blaine and pushed the other boy to the opposite side of the bed.

"We're supposed to be studying," he managed, still breathing heavily. "Mr. Conner assigned that econ test for the end of the week, and he's nearly as tough as the teachers at Dalton."

Blaine gaped at him like he'd grown three more heads.

"What?"

"Seriously?" Blaine almost squeaked out.

Kurt tried to think of something to say to that, but he knew he'd be insulted if Blaine had stopped mid-snog to say something about school. Blaine ran a hand through his hair and collapsed back against the pillows to stare at the ceiling.

"Kurt, you can't just do that. _Fuck_."

That had to be one of the hottest things he'd ever heard come out of Blaine's mouth, and that was saying something since a tiny part of him flailed and died inside each time Blaine sang. Or talked. Or moaned. Why had he stopped them again?

A door shut heavily elsewhere in the house and Kurt remembered that Blaine's walls were nowhere near as sound-proof as his own.

"Sorry," Kurt breathed out. "I was afraid we were getting a little carried away."

Blaine turned his head toward him and gave him a smaller version of the smile he only ever gave to Kurt.

"You could have just said that, you know."

"I kind of wasn't thinking that rationally."

Blaine turned on his side and shifted closer.

"Me neither."

As always, Kurt struggled not to lose himself in Blaine's eyes. A small part of him hated that he so easily fell for the romantic stereotype, but the rest of him couldn't get over how pretty they were. He couldn't risk losing this.

"So, homework?"

Blaine buried his face in Kurt's shoulder and groaned, "Kurt."

"Seriously, Blaine, I don't want you to get off on the wrong foot. I know McKinley's easier than Dalton, but there's no sense in getting complacent this close to graduation."

Blaine muttered something into his shoulder, but Kurt dismissed it as an auditory hallucination. His boyfriend didn't make vulgar comments about getting off.

* * *

><p>Carole sighed and shifted uncomfortably on the exam table. She had been so tired recently, but sleep was becoming more and more difficult the bigger little Susan got. It didn't help that she lay awake at night stressing about how they were possibly going to be able to pay for college for three boys <em>and<em> be able to buy all the things they'd need to raise the baby. Not to mention the hospital bills involved in actually giving birth to her. Even Blaine's protests that he'd get scholarships and student loans so they wouldn't have to pay for anything only added to her stress.

The boy needed to know what being a part of a proper family felt like and she was determined to give that to him. It was part of the reason she'd asked him to come along with her to the doctor's office today. She knew Blaine liked feeling involved in her pregnancy. All the boys did, to varying degrees, but Blaine was the only one who was excited to go to more than just that first family ultrasound.

A knock came on the door and a nurse led Blaine in.

"Dr. Wu is on a phone call right now, but he'll be in shortly to get things started," the nurse said. Carole nodded at her and she left, smiling a little at a disturbed-looking Blaine.

"Everything all right?" Carole asked as he sat in one of the provided chairs.

"Hmm? Oh, yeah. Just, some girl out in the waiting room thought I was here as a father and then when she found out I wasn't, she started hitting on me."

Carole choked down a laugh.

"Did you tell her you're gay?"

"And taken. It just seemed to peak her interest more."

Carole smiled at him and stroked his hair. She'd come to discover he quite liked that despite all his careful styling. Kurt would have bitten her head off.

"So the biophysical is the one where they strap monitors to your belly and have you press a button anytime the baby moves, right?"

Carole still found it charming he knew so much about pregnancy simply because she was pregnant.

"Yep. It's supposed to check how she's developing and see if she might have any issues during labor."

Blaine smiled and ran a hand over her belly as though petting the baby. She still remembered the look of pleased disbelief on his face the first five times she'd given him permission to do so. Susan kicked.

"How is school going?" Carole asked. Blaine looked up, startled, and withdrew his hand. "I know you haven't even been there a week, but do you think you're settling in all right?"

Blaine shifted in his seat. "It's okay. The classes are a lot easier. We're reading Huck Finn in English, which I read my first semester at Dalton, so I already know most of what the teacher is going to say before she says it."

"And glee club?"

"It's different," he shrugged. "Puck keeps going on about how I should have drunk more at his New Year's Eve party."

"I sometimes wonder if that boy is ever going to grow up."

"He's all right. I've met worse. Do you think the baby will be a crier?"

Carole hated it when he deflected like that. It made her worry about him more than she already did.

"Finn wasn't. Apparently Kurt was. Are you fitting in with the rest of the club?"

Blaine sighed quietly and glanced over to the door.

"Like you said, I haven't even been there a week yet."

"But you're already friends with most of them from before, right?"

"I'm friendly with them. That doesn't make them my friends."

Carole opened her mouth but a swift knock came on the door and Dr. Wu entered followed by a different nurse than before.

Maybe she could get Blaine to open up later.

* * *

><p><strong>Bit of an abrupt cut-off, but I didn't really want to go into too much detail about yet another appointment.<strong>

**I don't really have a beta for this, so your reviews really are incredibly helpful.**


	4. Birth

**I am so sorry for the tardiness of this chapter. I could give you all kinds of excuses about my muse preferring other stories (which she did), to RL distracting me (which it did), to this chapter somehow being the most difficult one in this story to write (which it was), but the truth is mostly that I'm a coward. I've never been this close to a birth before, and where I could fake knowledge on all the other aspects of pregnancy, I was really afraid to mess up this one. Hopefully I did it justice.**

**Oh yeah, and Blaine somehow took over this chapter too. *shrugs***

* * *

><p>Fuck.<p>

This wasn't happening. It was too early for this to be happening.

Carole looked back into the toilet bowl. The glutinous brown-tinged blob was still there.

Fuck!

Okay, no need to panic. Just call Dr. Wu and find out what to do. She wasn't contracting yet and her back didn't hurt any more than normal, so she probably wasn't in labor. Finn had taken a full two and a half weeks to be born after this happened. Everything was fine. Just a little early.

Oh fuck, let that be Braxton Hicks.

Just in case it was, Carole gulped down a few handfuls of water from the bathroom sink.

Water was good. Water made Braxton Hicks go away for a while.

Just in case, she gulped down a few more handfuls of water and tried her breathing tricks.

Calm was good. Calm was – fuck!

The stretching, pushing, cramping feeling increased tenfold and radiated around from her back. Carole doubled over the sink from the pain. When it was over she tried to catch her breath and reached down to take off her panties. They were damp with more glutinous brown discharge.

Fuck.

* * *

><p>Blaine carefully opened the closet door. Minimal light and the slight headache was no worse. So far so good. With slow hands, he carefully took the blanket off his head. Still no worse. He sighed in relief.<p>

Maybe the migraine from hell was truly going away.

Crawling painfully across the floor, trying to ease some of the muscle cramps earned from too long curled in a ball, Blaine left the closet and readjusted the sunglasses on his face. He may be starving and in desperate need of the bathroom, but there was no sense in tempting fate by removing them just yet.

He was so glad he'd managed to convince Kurt to go to school today. It was one thing for his boyfriend to see him cry, it was completely another for him to see the bizarre contortions he put himself through when trying to relieve one of his migraines. He was sure he'd never live down the closet jokes.

Walking slowly toward the downstairs bathroom, Blaine wondered if he'd be able to keep down whatever Carole had made for lunch… however long ago she had made it. He was pretty sure it was after noon, but he was a little afraid to risk the light from his cell phone to check the time, and Kurt had a weird aversion to decorating with clocks. Not that he particularly cared as he closed the bathroom door behind him and proceeded to have one the most fantastic pees of his life. There was nothing worse than a full bladder when you couldn't move from the pain in your head.

When he was done, he wandered toward the kitchen but stopped halfway there when he heard something that sounded like a whimper.

"Fuck."

"Carole?"

She was lying on her left side on the couch, pallid and breathless and gripping the phone so tight he could hear it creak. He rushed over to her, taking it from her and holding her hand.

"Carole, what's wrong? Is the baby-"

"I think I'm in labor."

"But you're only thirty-six weeks."

"Dr. Wu said to get to the hospital as soon as possible so they can try to stop the contractions, but-"

"It's okay, it's okay. Let me warm up the car and I'll drive you, everything will be fine. Thank goodness Kurt was anal enough to have your bag packed and by the door weeks too early."

"Blaine, your head-" she cut off as a contraction went through her, squeezing his hand so hard he thought she might break it. He gritted his teeth and brushed some hair off her damp forehead as she rode out the pain.

"It's barely noticeable anymore," he said when it seemed to be over. "Just let me get the car ready and we'll go, okay?"

She nodded shortly and he ran for the door, picking up her bag and shoving his feet into a pair of snowboots as he went. He thought they might be Finn's.

The snow outside was blinding, and his breath almost froze in his lungs. Why hadn't he grabbed a coat? His headache spiked again like a pickaxe behind his eyes.

Shivering, Blaine unlocked his car door and threw the bag into the passenger seat, jamming his key into the ignition before he'd properly sat down. His and Kurt's makeout mix floated calmly out of the speakers. Blaine blushed and reached around to the backseat, scrabbling around until he found his boxers balled up on the floor. There was no need for Carole to see that.

Shaking his head slightly and readjusting his glasses once more, Blaine shoved his underwear into his glove compartment and turned off his radio. He gave himself a few moments to breathe and will his headache away again. It almost worked.

Carole was whimpering when he entered the house again.

"How far apart are the contractions?"

"Maybe eight minutes," she managed. Blaine could feel the blood drain out of his face.

"Okay," stay calm. "Okay. Let's get you to the hospital."

Blaine shrugged on his pea coat and grabbed Carole's off the hook by the door, draping it around her shoulders and letting her lean heavily on him as they went to the car.

"Lying down on your side is supposed to help slow down the contractions, right?" Blaine asked, opening the back door of his car and easing Carole in.

"How did you-"

"I got a little obsessed with the research, remember? My backseat's not as comfortable as Kurt's, but you should be able to lie on your side a little."

Carole paused in her shifting and managed to give him an amused look.

"Do you spend a lot of time in Kurt's backseat?"

Blaine blushed furiously and was guiltily grateful when Carole tensed with another contraction. Closing the back door, he climbed into the driver's seat and started in the direction of the hospital.

He'd had the best routes mentally plotted for months just in case something like this happened, but for some reason he hadn't factored in the way the snowy roads slowed his progress. People were driving like they'd never seen snow before, and Blaine could only glance back helplessly through the rearview mirror and offer empty platitudes every time Carole had another contraction. He really hoped they weren't getting closer together.

Finally they made it to the maze that was the hospital parking lot and Blaine pulled up right in front of Labor and Delivery. With a quick glance at Carole he jumped out of the car and flagged down a nearby orderly.

"I've got Carole Hummel, thirty-six weeks pregnant, contracting in the back of my car."

The orderly barely glanced at him, but grabbed a wheelchair and gently helped Carole into it.

"You can't park here," he told Blaine. "Go park your car in the parking lot and you can come back and register your mom then."

"I registered over the phone," Carole gritted out.

"All right then, someone at the front desk will tell you what room to go to when you get back," the orderly corrected.

Blaine looked at Carole and sighed when she nodded. The orderly wheeled her away and Blaine grudgingly climbed back into his car to find an empty space.

* * *

><p>Burt couldn't believe how stupid people got in cold weather. He'd been working in the shop for over twenty years, but he'd seen more fender benders in the past couple of weeks than he remembered seeing all at once since before Kurt was born. The boys had all gotten sick of his continued orders to be safe on the road.<p>

He looked at his cell phone and resisted the urge to throw it in the trash. Damn thing had been acting up all week. Anytime he tried to make a call or read a text it would shut itself off.

With a sigh, Burt tossed the useless piece of technology on his desk and picked up the office phone. He hated using it for personal calls, but five more work orders had come in during the last hour and there was no way he'd make it out of the shop in time for dinner.

The answering machine picked up and Burt glared at the wall. He knew Carole needed her sleep now more than ever, but he really needed to hear her voice. She was his rock, his calm in the storm, the first person he turned to when things got a little too tough. Plus she'd been forced to go on maternity leave last week after her belly got too big for her to properly drive. She should be home.

The shrill shriek indicating he should talk went off far too loud in his ear and Burt rambled off the pertinent information so that somebody in the house would know he wasn't dead on the side of the road. He hoped the boys had all carpooled in Kurt's tank of a car today. The last thing he needed was for any of them to be hurt in an accident on top of everything else.

Burt hung up and sighed again. So much for his sanity break.

* * *

><p>Carole stared at her IV, willing the drugs to work. She hadn't even bothered to pay attention to what the drugs were beyond the fact that they were supposed to stop her contractions.<p>

Dr. Wu said she was at five centimeters. If the drugs didn't work she'd be in active labor and have a premature baby on her hands. She really didn't want to risk having a premature baby. Finn had been a week late. Why was this one coming early? She'd been taking better care of herself this time around. In fact, the combined force of the boys had insured that she could count on one hand the number of times she'd had junk food since becoming aware that she was pregnant. Okay, maybe both hands, but still. She thought she'd done everything right. She'd even been taking those prenatal yoga classes with Kurt. Didn't any of that count for anything?

Blaine rushed into the room looking like he'd run up the stairs rather than wait for an elevator. How he managed to do it in Finn's boots she had no idea. They had to be at least three sizes too big.

"The baby, is it-"

"They gave me something that's supposed to stop the contractions."

"Magnesium Sulfate?"

Was that it? She knew it was some kind of chemical. "That sounds familiar."

"Good. Good," Blaine nodded, finally taking off those ridiculous sunglasses. Carole wondered absently if he was aware of his nervous pacing or if he had given up trying to be calm for her sake when they separated at the hospital doors. "Have they given you any corticosteroids yet?"

"What?"

"They're supposed to help the baby's lungs develop faster in case they can't delay the pregnancy until you're full term. Really, they'd only have to delay it another week or so. Most doctors consider thirty-seven weeks close enough."

Carole smiled. "You really did obsess over your research."

"It's important. Someone I care about is having a baby. My boyfriend's going to have a little sister. I just, I figured someone might as well be over-informed."

"I love that you care so much. You don't have to."

"Yes I do," Blaine insisted, furrowing his brows. "You guys have all been amazing to me. You took me in when you had no obligation to. You _trusted_ me. That means everything."

"Blaine…"

"Besides, the baby – Susan… she's like a fresh start. The ultimate fresh start. I couldn't stop thinking about it on Thanksgiving. I mean, I thought about other things, other people I'd miss, but I couldn't stop thinking about her."

Carole's heart clenched as he paused. She hoped he wasn't about to confess what she was afraid he would. He'd been so broken that night… Not Blaine. Not this beautiful, charming boy.

"I almost ran away that night," he said quietly, not looking at her. "I got in my car and just started driving. I almost drove to Chicago. Just to get someplace where nobody knew me. I think I thought if nobody knew me, then nobody could really hurt me. But then I started thinking about you and Kurt and the baby and… I couldn't do it. You all mean so much more to me than you'll ever know."

Blaine's eyes were glassy, and Carole knew she might break down at any minute. It wasn't the worst she'd thought, but oh, why did this boy have to know so much heartbreak so young? Why did any of her boys have to feel it so keenly?

"Blaine, honey, you'll always have a place with us. Whatever else happens, you belong to us now, and family sticks by each other."

Carole reached out to grab his hand and he clasped it tightly between both of his for a long moment.

"So," he sniffled. "Do you think the baby will cooperate with all the drugs pumping through your system?"

Carole laughed and shook her head.

"It sounds so horrible when you put it like that."

"It kind of does," Blaine grinned sheepishly.

Carole suddenly felt sick to her stomach. Afraid to open her mouth, she desperately motioned for Blaine to get her a tray or a bedpan she could throw up in.

"I think that means it's working," he said, barely getting his hands out of the way before she heaved.

Carole was dimly aware of her hair being pushed out of her face as all her insides attempted to leave via her throat. It had better be working.

* * *

><p>Kurt was livid. Blaine had tried texting him earlier and stupid Mr. Conner with his stupid comb-over and his horrible mismatched ensemble had confiscated his phone. For all he knew, his boyfriend's brains might be leaking out of his ears or something, but he wouldn't be able to find out until the end of the day when he would finally be able to reclaim his rightful property from Mr. Figgins of all people.<p>

Kurt was worried about Blaine. He had come downstairs that morning to find his boyfriend taking way more than the recommended amount of pain medication before crawling back into bed and throwing the blankets over his head. After a hushed fifteen minute conversation with Blaine's comforter about whether or not he should stay home from school too, Kurt had reluctantly headed out the door for class. He regretted that decision more than ever now.

He knew from their time together at Dalton that Blaine was prone to headaches when he was particularly stressed about something, but Kurt had hoped he was helping to alleviate some of that stress. Or at least distract from it. They'd started going on dates again. Proper ones once a week to Breadstix or the movies or, more frequently, the Lima Bean after school. They'd even gone parking a couple of times in an attempt to get more privacy, and although the last thing Kurt wanted was to lose his virginity in the back of a car, the lack of family members potentially walking in on them was liberating to say the least.

Still, Kurt saw the pain in Blaine's eyes when he thought no one was looking. He was miserable, and Kurt knew David Anderson was to blame for it. Kurt didn't think he'd ever hated anyone more than he hated that man. What father disowned his son for something neither of them could control? All the dates and steamy makeout sessions in the world couldn't do anything to fix that.

Instead of feeling helpless, Kurt offered Blaine all the unconditional love and support he had in him to give, and he tried his best to offer it without smothering him. It was a fine line to balance on, but Kurt thought he was doing okay.

Kurt breathed in deeply and looked at the clock. Two more classes and he could get his phone back. He just hoped whatever Blaine wanted wasn't anything urgent.

* * *

><p>"Shit."<p>

"Carole?"

Blaine looked up from attempting to decipher the lines and graphs being created on the monitors hooked up to Carole's belly. She was frantically pressing the call button for a nurse.

"I think my water just broke."

"Wait. What?" Blaine had to stop himself from looking down the bed to check.

"Shit," Carole breathed. "Why won't this baby cooperate?"

"It's okay, it's okay," Blaine stroked her hand. "I'm going to see if I can't flag down a nurse or something, okay?"

"She's breech," Carole said absently to the wall. Blaine felt the blood rush out of his face for the second time that day. "I've been trying not to think about that ever since Dr. Wu told me. But she's breech. And she's almost a month premature. I thought I did everything right."

Blaine swallowed and continued to pet her hand. "You did. I was there most of the time, remember? Even when you thought something was stupid you did it just in case it helped. It's just… sometimes these things just happen. And it's better to be premature at thirty-six weeks than any time before that, okay? She's practically at close enough, you know?"

Carole squeezed his hand and they both looked up as an efficient knock sounded at the door.

"Is everything all right in here?" the older nurse who had been checking in on them asked.

"My water broke."

The nurse immediately donned some gloves and walked to the foot of the bed.

"Legs apart."

Blaine carefully watched Carole's face.

"You're at six and a half centimeters and yes, your water has broken. I'll page Dr. Wu to start prepping for the birth," she snapped her gloves off and briefly looked over the lines on the monitors beside the bed. "So far everything with the baby looks good. This should be a fairly straightforward C-section."

"I know Dr. Wu said if we couldn't stop the labor that would be my best option, but do I have to get a C-section?" Carole asked, her grip on Blaine's hand tightening.

"Breech babies, especially if they're premature, have a better chance of survival if they're delivered through C-section," Blaine said quietly.

"He's right," the nurse said. "Besides, it's hospital policy in these cases. Don't worry, everything will be fine. I'll send in the anesthesiologist shortly to get your epidural started."

"Epidural? You mean I'll still be conscious?"

"This way you'll be awake to hear your baby's first cries, but you won't feel anything. It's the best sort of compromise." Carole nodded shortly.

"Don't hesitate to call me if anything else changes." The nurse smiled at them both and walked out the door.

"You said you called everyone?" Carole asked in a small voice.

"I did. I can try them all again. Something must be preventing them from getting my messages. I know they all really want to be here."

Carole smiled tightly and gripped his hand. "Just, wait with me until I get the epidural, okay?"

"Of course."

They didn't have to wait long. Within ten minutes, a handsome, youngish-looking doctor walked in and began explaining what he was doing as he instructed Carole to sit up and hunch her shoulders like she was shrugging.

"We'll numb the area first; it will feel like a wasp sting. Just relax," he said calmly as he swabbed at her lower back. Despite the warning, Carole hissed when the needle went in. Blaine petted her hand and started humming the opening bars to her favorite song.

"You're doing good," the doctor said, smiling at Blaine as he cleaned the area again. He stuck a larger needle into her back and then inserted a catheter. Blaine watched him work calmly and efficiently, his hands deliberate and steady. By the time Blaine was looping around for another chorus of the song, the doctor was done and snapping his gloves off.

"It should take about twenty minutes for it to take full effect, but you should be fine by the time we're ready to take you into surgery. You did very well," he said, clapping Carole gently on the shoulder. "Just try to relax and take advantage of your young man here. He's got an excellent voice."

The doctor winked at Blaine before he left and Blaine tried not to look too closely at Carole's amused face. He felt weird enough about that without her teasing him.

Another nurse entered the room a few minutes later to shave her for the surgery and Blaine quickly excused himself after garnering a few more assurances that she'd be fine without him.

Blaine strode out into the hallway and took a few moments to breathe. It had been hours since they got here, but everything still seemed like it was happening too fast. He pulled his phone out of his pocket, once again grateful he'd automatically grabbed it along with his keys.

Burt. He needed to try calling Burt again first. He had no idea why the man wasn't here yet, but maybe he hadn't gotten the message Blaine had left after parking his car what felt like a mile away from the hospital building. Or maybe the phones were down.

He sent Kurt another quick text asking him where _he _was, then scrolled through his contacts for Burt's shop. Surely someone would answer the phone there.

"Hummel Tire and Lube," Burt said shortly.

"Burt! Finally."

"Blaine? What's going on? Are you boys hurt? Did something happen to Kurt?"

"Kurt's fine. I think. He won't answer any of my texts but… I'm at the hospital with Carole. They want to do an emergency C-section."

"What? Why are you-"

"I stayed home from school today. I never thought I'd be grateful to have a migraine, but it meant I was able to be there for Carole when she went into labor and drive her here… Burt, they couldn't stop the labor. They're prepping her for surgery now."

"I'm already on my way. What room are you in?"

"Um, 432. I'm not sure if they're going to move her first or not, though."

"Shit. Okay. You said you told the boys?"

"I tried texting them both, but Kurt's not answering back and, um, I think the number I have for Finn is wrong." Well, he certainly hoped it was wrong. He couldn't imagine even Puck screwing with them like that. The message he had received in return was… explicit, to say the least.

"All right. Look, I want you to stay with Carole. Tell her I'm coming. And don't for one second let the doctors think they can kick you out of the room."

"It's not a problem. Dr. Wu already thinks I should go to med school. Apparently I know more than a lot of people about – anyway, I'll be there. Don't worry."

"Good. I'll be there as soon as I can. And try to get the boys again. They'll be pissed if they miss this."

"Already done."

They hung up and Blaine rubbed at his face. Right, he needed to change into scrubs so he could be with Carole. He'd done all he could think of to let people know.

He sent off one more text to Kurt and walked back into the room.

* * *

><p>Kurt stormed into the choir room and threw himself into a chair. Finn looked at an equally worried Rachel then turned himself around to face the back of the room.<p>

"Um, Kurt, dude, is everything all right?"

Kurt blew air out his nose like a dragon and focused his glare in Finn's direction. Finn couldn't remember what he might have done, but he really hoped his brother wasn't this pissed at him.

"No, Finn, everything is not 'all right'. My phone has been confiscated and left in the care of the esteemed Principal Figgins, who decided today would be an excellent day to leave early for a three day intramural Candy Land tournament in Toledo, meaning I can't get it back until he returns to school on Monday!"

"Um, okay." At least it wasn't him.

"Kurt, if you're worried about Blaine, I'm sure he's fine," Rachel piped up. "He's home with Carole after all, and we all know what a great caregiver she is."

Finn smiled and kissed her for that. She really was an amazing girlfriend sometimes. Kurt made a sound of annoyed disgust.

"Kurt, is there something else going on?" Tina asked quietly. Finn looked at her before quickly turning his attention back to Kurt. Please don't let it be more bullying, please don't let it be more bullying…

Kurt sighed. "Blaine tried to text me in fourth period, but Mr. Conner took my phone away before I could read what it actually said. All I saw was a bunch of capital letters."

"Sometimes I forget how to turn off my caps lock," Brittany offered.

"It wasn't that, Britt. Blaine never uses incorrect grammar in his texts. They might sometimes read like poetry, but they're always very purposeful and immaculate. Just like him."

Finn simultaneously felt the urge to throw up and squeeze his brother while saying, "Awww!" in a really loud voice.

"If it's that big a deal, why don't you borrow one of our phones and find out what's going on?" Mercedes asked, digging in her bag as she spoke. Kurt's face looked like a lightbulb just went off over his head, and Finn wondered if that's what he looked like when he finally got something. That's what he felt like, anyway.

Kurt grabbed the offered phone and immediately started pressing buttons.

"You have Blaine listed as 'Kurt's boy'?"

"Well, he is."

Kurt shot her a look and pressed the phone to his ear as Mr. Schue entered the room.

"All right, guys, so I have some great ideas for Regionals-"

"Shhh!" Kurt shushed him with the finger of doom. Finn hoped the teacher didn't try to object. You didn't mess with Kurt once the finger of doom came into play.

"Um, what's-"

"Blaine! Honey, what's going on?"

"Kurt-"

"I know. Mr. Conners took my phone away," Kurt said over the teacher, purposefully turning in the opposite direction and covering his free ear.

"Don't shush him, Mr. Schue," Rachel said imperiously. "He's having a critical relationship moment."

"If he really needs to talk to Blaine, he can do it-"

"YOU'RE WHAT?"

Finn turned his head with everybody else to look at Kurt. He somehow looked about ten shades paler than usual and was shaking like he had last year before transferring to Dalton. Crap. Something really was wrong with Blaine. Was he a horrible person for not thinking it was that big a deal when Kurt was freaking out about it earlier?

"Shit!" Woah. Kurt never cursed like that. "Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!"

"Kurt…" Mr. Schue tried again.

"Okay, okay. We're coming right now… I know, it's okay. Just, keep holding her hand. We'll be there as soon as we can."

Kurt hung up and it was Finn's turn to pale. Did he just say '_her _hand'?

"Finn, get up we're leaving. Mr. Schue, I'm sorry, but our mom is being prepped for an emergency C-section. We need to leave _now_."

The choir room erupted into chaos, but Finn only heard it as a muffled buzzing in his ears. It wasn't supposed to happen like this. His mom was supposed to go into labor on a weekend when they were all home and could go to the hospital with her. And it wasn't February yet. Would the baby be okay being born this early? What happened?

"Finn!" Kurt snapped. He was holding both their bags and standing impatiently by the door. Finn shook himself.

"Right, right. I'm coming."

He lumbered to his feet and dazedly followed his brother through the halls. They might as well have been running for as fast as they were going. Finn still felt like his ears were buzzing.

"Dude, you're driving, right?" he asked, putting a hand on Kurt's elbow as they walked out into the cold that wasn't as bad as he thought it should be. Huh. When did he put his coat on?

"Of course I am. Now get in."

They both climbed into Kurt's Navigator and Finn continued to try to get his brain working again.

He was about to become a big brother. Shit.

* * *

><p>They finally allowed Burt into the room just before cutting into the skin of Carole's lower abdomen. The hospital staff had practically made him take a shower before showing him which room to go to. While he understood the need for sterility, that was also his <em>wife<em> lying on that table having major surgery.

Blaine glanced up from where he was intensely watching the proceedings long enough to shoot Burt a relieved smile. He squeezed Carole's hand and eagerly turned back to what the doctors were doing with the scalpel. He was kind of a weird kid, but through the rush of adrenaline still pumping through his veins and his anger at himself for not being here from the start, Burt found himself grateful to him. He'd been there for Carole, holding her hand every step of the way.

Blaine playacted like an adult all the time, but today it sounded like he'd actually _been _one.

Taking a deep breath, Burt let the nurse he was with lead him over to the far side of the operating table where he wouldn't be in anybody's way. He carefully trained his eyes on Carole's anxious face as he walked instead of on the carnage they were doing to her belly. He didn't think he could stand to see that, for all that it was supposedly medically necessary.

"Hey, honey," he breathed, carefully squeezing her shoulder.

"You're here."

"Finally. I need a better damn phone."

She smiled at him and Burt leaned down to kiss her forehead. They just stared at each other for a while, and Burt knew they both needed that special kind of reassurance only they could give each other.

Blaine gasped from just the other side of the curtain-thing they had set up. Burt wondered just why the hell the doctors were letting him watch from so close. Or at all. And then he heard the baby cry.

Suddenly, a pair of gloved hands was holding up a tiny, squalling, goo-covered baby girl over the top of the curtain-thing.

"It's a girl," Dr. Wu's voice floated over.

Carole choked out a sob and Burt turned to look at her as the doctors took Susan away to clean her up a bit.

"You doing okay?" he asked.

Carole opened and shut her mouth a few times before closing her eyes and sighing.

"It's been a long day," she finally said.

She looked tired, and one of the nurses had told him on the way up here that she'd be in pain for the next few weeks, but Burt didn't think he'd ever loved her more. To have gone through all that she had today with just a scared kid for support… she was an amazing woman. He vowed to himself to be there when she needed him from now on.

"I'm glad you got here," she whispered.

"Me too."

"I was afraid you wouldn't be able to come. I really wanted you to be here when she was born."

"Well, I'm here now." Burt said. "And I'm not going anywhere."

A nurse carefully placed the baby in Carole's arms and Burt had to blink away his own tears.

Yeah, he definitely wasn't going anywhere.

* * *

><p>Blaine pulled the paper hat thing from his head and looked over the occupants of the waiting room. He caught sight of Kurt just before the taller boy swept him up in his arms.<p>

"Blaine! What happened? They wouldn't let us in and they tried to tell us that it didn't matter if it was our mom, the surgery had already started, but we got here as fast as we could. Is she okay? Is the baby-"

"Kurt! Kurt, calm down. Everything's fine. They're just closing her back up now. Your dad wanted to make sure you guys knew, so I volunteered to come out. I figured they probably wanted some time together anyway."

Kurt let out a breath and collapsed back into Blaine's arms. Finn hovered awkwardly a few feet away.

"Your mom was awesome, Finn," Blaine smiled at him. "I think she's my new hero."

Finn half-smiled back and shifted his weight. He couldn't quite seem to meet Blaine's eyes.

"Finn?"

"Dude, why didn't you call me? I mean, I get you not getting through to Kurt cause of that whole phone thing, but she's my mom. Didn't you think I'd want to know?"

Kurt pulled out of his arms again to look at his brother and Blaine felt like ten kinds of fool.

"Finn, it wasn't on purpose. I tried texting you right after Kurt, but, well, the message I got back in return made me think I had the wrong number and I got kind of scared to try it again. And it didn't even occur to me to try calling somebody else to get a hold of you. I guess I wasn't really thinking clearly."

"You got scared of a text?"

Both of them were giving him looks of such matching incredulity that Blaine could almost believe them to be related by blood. With a sigh and a quick glance over both his shoulders Blaine pulled out his phone and brought up the message in question.

"Ugh!"

"I'm officially scarred for life now."

"Sorry. But, yeah, you can see why I didn't really want to risk it."

"Dude, what number do you have for me? That's just… ugh."

"Sorry."

Kurt took a deep breath and visibly shook himself. "Well, putting all that aside, are you going to tell us about our sister?"

"Yeah, is she okay? I thought it was supposed to be a really bad thing for them to be born this early."

"She came out just fine. They're going to keep her under closer observation just to make sure her lungs are all right and everything but I can't imagine she'll have too many problems. She wailed like a banshee once she realized she was no longer in the womb."

"What does she look like?" Kurt asked. "Does she have any hair on her head?"

Blaine laughed. "Honestly? Her face looked a bit like a squashed cabbage. But she's kind of amazing. She gripped my finger when I held her like it was the most important thing in the world. And she kept sticking her tongue out like a lizard. It was adorable."

Kurt gave him a look at that last word and Finn looked like he was trying to suppress his jealousy again.

"They let you hold her?"

"Yeah, only for about a minute though. Your mom and Burt got to hold her first. Then they had to take her away to do tests and stuff. I don't think either of your parents could stop crying by that point."

"Carole was awake by then?" Kurt asked.

"Of course, she was never asleep."

"Wait, you mean she was awake through the whole thing?" Finn asked.

"Yeah," Blaine shrugged. "They really only put women completely under if something is going wrong."

"She couldn't feel them slicing into her, though, right?" a hint of panic was now edging his voice.

"No," Blaine laughed. "They gave her an epidural first. She couldn't feel anything, I promise."

"I can't believe you've been here all afternoon," Kurt said, shaking his head.

"Where else would I be?"

"Your headache…"

Blaine shrugged again. "Carole was more important. Besides, it kind of went away when I realized it was up to me to be there for her. What's a minor annoyance in the face of something as huge as _childbirth_?"

"Minor annoyance?"

"It became a minor annoyance once the adrenaline fully kicked in. That and I took some more pain killers when I parked the car."

"Blaine! You could have overdosed! I saw how much you took this morning."

"Kurt, I'm fine."

"Besides, dude, if he was gonna OD at least he was in the hospital already," Finn chipped in. Kurt glared at him.

"You're not helping."

One of the nurses from earlier came up to them then and touched Blaine's elbow.

"You can go observe her now," she smiled. "Everything looks fine."

Blaine grinned and thanked her. He couldn't wait to see Kurt and Finn's reactions when they first saw their sister.

The nurse led them to a hallway with large windows looking into a room filled with babies. Even with the nurse's help pointing out the right crib, it still took Blaine a moment to find her. And there she was, in a pink cap and swaddling with the name Susan Lee Hummel printed on the foot of her crib. She was crying again.

Blaine looked over at his companions and bit his lip. Finn was doing his best not to cry and Kurt looked like he'd just discovered the most interesting thing on the planet.

"Dude, she's so tiny."

"I can't believe we're related to something so small. And red. Do you think she'll hurt herself if she cries any harder?"

A male nurse walked up to the crib just then and picked Susan up to calm her.

"I could believe she's related to you," Finn said, elbowing Kurt in the side. "You're kinda tiny yourself."

"Oh, very funny."

Blaine grinned and unobtrusively backed up a few paces, turning his attention back to the little girl in the crib. He was staying out of this one.

* * *

><p>Carole gripped Burt's forearm and slowly continued down the hall.<p>

One foot in front of the other, don't think about the pain, don't think about the pain.

The nurses were all insane. And sadistic. She really just wanted to be in bed. Asleep. She'd been sliced open twelve hours ago, it made no sense for her to be moving about so soon, but the nurses had insisted.

Ow.

Don't think about the pain.

Burt was half asleep beside her. The silly man had insisted on sleeping on the couch in her recovery room but had barely been able curl himself tight enough to fit. The boys had sensibly all gone home to sleep. She expected they'd be back as soon as school let out, as she'd flat out refused to let them take the day off. They'd already had Monday off school for the holiday, and Blaine had missed all of yesterday. They could stand the agony of one more school day before the weekend.

Besides, Carole figured their entire glee club probably wanted to meet the baby, and that would be much more easily accomplished after classes let out.

Carole grimaced as she thought about her daughter. She was having trouble eating, often refusing to even acknowledge the existence of the nipple presented to her, but the nurses assured her that was fairly normal for preemie babies. They were watching her more closely, but the fact that she sometimes did eat was considered to be a good sign.

Carole didn't quite want to trust them. Too many things that shouldn't have happened with this pregnancy had in just the last twenty-four hours. She shuddered to think about what could happen to her baby girl now that she was actually out of the womb.

Ow! Fuck. Okay, now she knew not to step like that.

Carole sighed as they reached the end of the hall and turned around to go back.

She needed to just take things as they came. Everything would fall into place later. That's what had been happening all year after all. At some point she'd get used to it.

* * *

><p><strong>For anyone who's curiousconfused, the first scene was talking about a lovely little thing called the mucus plug. Go look it up. It's kind of fascinating.**

**As always, reviews are marvelous things.**


	5. Epilogue

**Is it weird I spent more time researching colleges for the boys than I did when I was deciding for myself?**

* * *

><p>"Right. Shoes, clothes, scarves, three coat options… do you think I should bring more than two hats?"<p>

"Kurt, you're going to college," Burt's voice echoed out of the kitchen. "Most of the other kids'll be in sweatpants and hoodies by the second week of class. If I were you I'd be more concerned about having that fancy new laptop I bought you so you can do your homework, or maybe your phone so you can call home every once and a while."

Blaine grinned as Kurt predictably rolled his eyes.

"Okay, first of all, can you ever imagine seeing me in sweatpants and a hoodie?" he called. "Secondly, my laptop was the first thing I packed after my new Chanel sweater and trouser combination. Thirdly, dad, this isn't just college, this is college in _New York_. I have to look even more fabulous than I already do on a daily basis."

"Just make sure you get your fabulous ass to class every day and we'll be good," Burt called. Blaine choked back a laugh as Kurt pouted.

"I think it's adorable you're so intent on what to bring with you when we both know you'll go out shopping the first second you get a chance," Blaine said, curling an arm around Kurt's waist and pulling him closer as Kurt twined his arms around Blaine's neck.

Finn dropped a duffel bag on top of Kurt's perfectly arranged stack of five suitcases. "Dude, don't encourage him. Credit card companies prey on college kids who want lots of cool stuff. I saw it in this movie Rachel made me watch."

"Finn, I've had a credit card since I was sixteen. I think I can handle myself," Kurt bit out acerbically and pointedly tilted his hips into Blaine's. Finn predictably paled and hastily retreated to the kitchen where Burt and Carole were making some last minute snacks for them to take on the trip.

"You're horrible," Blaine muttered into Kurt's neck.

"Are you complaining? He's out of the room."

Blaine bit him lightly instead of responding. He loved the quiet gasps Kurt made when he did that.

"Hey, stop making out in the living room. You're only here for another hour, and I'd prefer to spend it on a little father-son bonding time, not watching the two of you suck face."

Kurt pulled away blushing and Blaine shot Burt an embarrassed grin. The older man pointedly looked toward the couch as he sat down and Kurt obediently perched himself as close to his dad's armchair as he could get. Blaine smiled at them sadly. He knew he'd never have that with his own father, but it didn't mean part of him didn't still long for it.

The baby began crying loud enough to make the monitors placed in every room kind of redundant and Blaine jumped at the chance to sooth her.

"I've got her," he called, almost tripping over the luggage as he moved.

"Why don't you bring her down here," Burt said. "That father-son comment was aimed at you too, you know."

Blaine stared at him for a bit and nodded. He couldn't speak if he wanted to. Finn came out of the kitchen and patted his shoulder as he turned toward the stairs. He wasn't going to cry. He wasn't.

Carole winked at him as he passed her. "I know you wanted to say a proper goodbye to Susie anyway," she said. He smiled at her and climbed the stairs.

They each had their own names for the baby. Sue had been vetoed by all three boys before she even came home from the hospital, but Susie and Susan were interchangeably used by both Burt and Carole. Finn, much to Blaine's amusement and Carole's disgust, had settled on calling her Leeloo, like the character from Fifth Element. Kurt made fun of him for it every time.

Blaine smiled when he thought about Kurt's reaction to the baby. He both loved her and hated her in about equal measure. He adored dressing her up and trying to focus her attention on one of her brightly colored toys, but he refused to trust her ever since the first time he had held her and wound up with baby vomit all over the back of his new Marc Jacobs sweater. Half the time Kurt mentioned her he called her the Brat.

Blaine himself liked to call her SuLee. She was as white as her family members, but Blaine secretly liked how Asian the name sounded rolling off his tongue. He also liked that it was vaguely similar to a Turkish name, Şule, he had uncovered back in his obsessive research days. It meant flame. Blaine found that rather appropriate considering the number of times he'd overheard Burt call her a firecracker.

The baby's cries were louder now that he was in the nursery, but the moment Blaine picked her up she stopped and snuggled into his shoulder. She was such a little actress.

"Are you gonna miss us, SuLee?" he asked quietly, nuzzling his nose into her dark blonde hair. She smelled like soap and lavender-scented sheets and that pure baby smell Kurt claimed to hate right before his face softened and he called her Petal. Kurt always called her Petal when he was feeling particularly affectionate.

SuLee babbled something and began gnawing on the material of his shirt. Blaine smiled and kissed her head before heading back downstairs.

"… us if anything happens," Carole was saying as he reentered the living room. "I don't care what time of the night it is, even if you just want to talk we'll be here. And we won't use what you say as an excuse to get you to come back here," she said with a pointed look at Burt.

"I promise," he said. "You're all adults now, you can make adult decisions. But you damn well better be coming back for at least Christmas. I'll pay for the tickets myself."

Blaine grinned and detached SuLee's somehow sticky hands from his face. They'd all been having some variation of this conversation since summer started.

"Hey, the Leeloo monster's awake!" Finn cried, making gimmie motions with his hands. Blaine reluctantly handed her over and sat on the floor next to Kurt.

Part of him hated that he wouldn't have this anymore. He finally felt a little like he actually belonged to a family for once. Burt and Carole treated him like he was just another one of their sons, and although he knew it wasn't true, he'd rather come to rely on the sense of security that gave him.

Kurt began playing with the hair on the back of his head in that special way he had, and Blaine suddenly remembered one of the reasons why he was excited to go to New York.

The extra privacy he and Kurt would have was priceless.

Carole caught his eye and grinned. Blaine did his best to hide his blush. Sometimes he swore that woman could read his mind.

He knew he'd miss that too.

* * *

><p>Carole was doing her best not to cry.<p>

Finn clung to her, his tall frame bent awkwardly as he buried his face in her neck. This move would be hard for him. He was ostensibly following Rachel to New York, studying music performance at CUNY instead of going to NYADA with her, but Carole knew his move had just as much to do with keeping an eye on Kurt and Blaine as it did staying close to his girlfriend. He was protective of them to a degree that made her heart swell. Her little boy had become a man; Carole didn't think she could be prouder of him if she tried.

He sniffled and pulled back, giving her an opportunity to wipe her eyes again. A few feet away, Kurt still clung to Burt, but Carole could see him already vibrating with excitement for the future. He had been accepted to the musical theater program at Pace University, and all summer had been debating the benefits of minoring in English to better perfect his script-writing abilities. Burt was already bragging to anyone who would listen about the possibility of his bringing home a Tony in the future.

Blaine stood off to the side, half his face hidden behind Susie's head as he watched them. True to his word, he'd gotten a full-ride music scholarship to NYU, giving up a spot at Columbia so she and Burt wouldn't have to help him pay for his education. He didn't know it, but Burt had slipped an extra $500 into one of his suitcases so he'd have a little extra money to live on in a city as notoriously expensive as New York. Burt had done the same for all the boys.

Kurt and Finn traded places in Carole and Burt's arms, and although these hugs were shorter, they were no less intense. Finally there was just Blaine, still standing to the side as though trying to keep out of the way. Burt clapped him on the back and took the baby from him.

"You look after yourself, all right?"

"Of course," Blaine said, his polite charm almost hiding the anxiety behind his eyes. Carole knew he was nervous about what the next year would bring. She stepped up and wrapped her arms around him.

"Don't be a stranger, honey," she said into his hair. "I expect you to call me just as much as the other boys."

"I know, Carole, I will."

They squeezed each other a little tighter and let go. Blaine moved over to join Finn and Kurt by his car, all of them anxious to pick up Rachel and start their ten hour drive to New York. Carole fought back more tears.

"I call first shift," Finn said, moving to open the driver's side door.

"I don't know, I think Kurt should get the first shift," Blaine said, turning to the boy in question. "Don't you think so, Meg Ryan?"

Kurt blushed and looked incredibly pleased about something.

"Why thank you, Billy Crystal," he said, casually displacing Finn and sitting down. Poor Finn just looked confused.

"You guys aren't gonna be like this the whole time, right?"

"Oh, like you and Rachel won't be worse," Kurt retorted.

"Boys," Burt called. They all smiled cheekily back and piled into the car, Blaine waving out the window as Finn and Kurt threw back one more round of I love yous. Then they were pulling out into the street. And then they were gone.

"Burt…"

"They'll be fine," he said tightly.

Susan started to fuss grumpily. Carole knew she'd miss the boys too.

As they headed back inside, Carole looked around the living room. She couldn't help thinking it looked emptier than before, like an empty nest. It was a stupid cliché, but it felt achingly true at that moment.

Susan's whines became full-fledged cries and Carole went to heat up some milk for her next meal.

At least the nest wasn't completely empty yet.

* * *

><p><strong>Thank you to everyone who read this, especially all of you who subscribed or favorited it. Extra special thanks go to the brave few who actually did review it. Your comments never failed to brighten my day and kick my muse in the ass when she was being petulant.<strong>

**If there is something you'd like to see expanded in a separate one-shot, don't hesitate to send me a PM. I won't guarantee I'll have anything more to say about it, but chances are good I will. I'm kind of reluctant to let this universe go.**


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